New cooperation agreements adopted in Sudan-Chad troops summit

The Conference for Assessment of the Performance of the Joint Sudanese-Chadian Forces was concluded on Friday in N’Djamena. Delegations of both countries adopted a number of new cooperation agreements for shared border areas.   The summit, co-headed by the Sudanese Minister of Defense General Abdul Rahim Mohamed Hussein and his Chadian counterpart, was attended by Chadian government officials, leaderships of civil society organizations and representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited to the country, SUNA reports. Recommendations adopted in the conference include that officials of security and intelligence in Sudan and Chad must closely follow-up the outlaws in both countries, and defense ministers must ensure that border military garrisons cooperate with the joint forces. Parties also agreed to ensure the coordination between both armies “especially in the areas witnessing disputes between the citizens and the local authorities on the borders between the two countries”. The issue of “stolen vehicles by some Sudanese rebel movements and sold to the Chadian nationals” was also raised in the summit. Both governments agreed to establish a compensation fund to return the cars to their owners and “compensate them adequately”.   Leaders of the Sudanese and Chadian delegation agreed that previous recommendations that have not yet been implemented must be executed. These include that tribal administrators residing along the Sudanese-Chadian shared borders must hold a conference in the presence of military, security, executive and judiciary organs in the two countries as soon as possible. Sudan and Chad deployed Border-Control Force (BCF) along their common borders with the aim of curbing cross-border infiltration into each others’ territories, Sudan Tribune says. The deployment followed a normalization agreement signed between the two sides in January 2010, ending their long history of mutual hostilities and backing of each others’ insurgents. The BCF is composed of 3,000 troops split evenly between the two sides. ICC Meanwhile, the New York-based Human Rights Watch has urged the government of Chad to arrest the Sudanese Defense Minister during the conference in N’Djamena. Hussein is sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Darfur. He served as the representative of the Sudanese president in the region in 2004, one year after the start of the conflict. Chad is a signatory of the Rome Statute, the document that established the ICC. This makes the country legally bound to arrest suspects indicted by the court inside its territory. ICC issued an arrest for Hussein in 2012, and this appears to be the first time he left Sudan to an ICC signatory country since.File photo: Sudanese-Chadian troopsRelated: JEM: Chadian troops, Sudan militias ‘moving together’ in Darfur (24 April 2013)