DAKAR: The presidents of Sudan and Chad have signed a non-aggression pact, vowing not to support rebel attacks against each other, many of which were launched from troubled Darfur.The accord made late on Thursday by Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir and Chad counterpart Idriss Deby is the sixth they have agreed in five years and came only after intense international pressure.

The arch rivals signed the accord and shook hands in the presence of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade. Wade is hosting a summit of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Dakar.

Beshir and Deby accuse each other of backing rebels seeking to overthrow their governments and there have been several clashes between their armies.

The text of the deal, released by Senegal’s Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane, said: “We solemnly engage to prohibit all activity by armed groups and to stop the use of our respective territories for the destabilisation of one or other of our states.” But the main innovation in the sixth accord is the creation of a contact group — made up of Libya, Congo, Senegal, Gabon and Eritrea — that will meet once a month to make sure both sides keep to the new pact.

Sudan’s Foreign Minister Deng Alor Kuol played down the importance of the new deal saying it was “complementary to the previous accords which had no control mechanism.”

The two leaders had “reaffirmed their respect for past engagements” so they could “definitively end the differences between the two countries and restore peace and security in the sub-region.”

The two presidents committed to a personal reconciliation, to normalise relations between their countries and to implement past accords — all have which have been ignored in the acrimony between the two.

They promised to help establish peace and stability in the troubled region already stricken by the Darfur conflict in western Sudan, on Chad’s border. Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi brokered one peace deal in February 2006, and another was sealed in the Sudanese capital in August the same year.

Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic agreed in February 2007 not to let rebels from other countries use their territory. In May last year Deby and Beshir made another pact after praying together at the Kaaba, in Saudi Arabia. Beshir failed to turn up for one mini-summit after his arrival in Dakar on Wednesday night. Wade said Beshir blamed his absence on a headache.

On Thursday, Deby’s government said Chadian rebels based in Sudan had crossed the border to launch an offensive.

But Chadian rebels and Sudan denied the claim which highlighted the rivalry between the pair.

Deby accused Sudan after three rebel factions drove across southern Chad in late January to launch a bloody assault on Ndjamena on Feb 2-3 which left scores dead.

Beshir in turn made a new swipe at his rival on Tuesday before arriving in Dakar.

“After the prayers inside the Kaaba, hand in hand, we said: ‘We have a deal, and may Allah punish he who breaks it,’” Beshir told reporters in Dubai.

“If the Chadian president failed to honour an agreement made inside the Kaaba, how can you expect him to adhere to an agreement he (might) sign in Dakar?” he asked.

The UN said on Wednesday that there are now about 470,000 refugees in eastern Chad — 250,000 from Darfur and 57,000 from Central African Republic 57,000 and 180,000 internally displaced Chadians.—AFP