Libya sets up surveillance groups on Chad-Sudan borders

Report from AngolaPress Tripoli, Libya, March 6, 2006:

The African ministerial committee on the Chad-Sudan crisis has agreed in Tripoli to set up surveillance groups on the common borders of the two countries, Libyan Foreign Minister Abderrahman Chalgham has said.

Speaking at the end of the committee meeting in the Libyan capital Friday, Chalgham said the groups and military commissions would start soon.



The ministerial committee is to hold another meeting before the end of this month, he added.

The Libyan official said the decision to set up the control groups followed a report by the African Union (AU) Commissioner for peace and security, Said Djinnit.

He also explained that the committee identified 10 positions for surveillance, five on each of the two countries` borders, as well as the States expected to form the control groups and the mechanisms for their operation.

Chalgam described the Tripoli meting as "constructive, sincere and detailed," resulting in "practical" decisions to be translated into concrete actions on the ground.

In addition to Djinnit, Foreign Ministers or their representatives from Chad, Sudan, Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, and Burkina Faso's Youssouf Ouedraogo, current chairman of the executive council of the Community of the Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), also attended the Tripoli meeting.

The ministerial committee was set up by a recent African mini-summit convened by the Libyan leader, Colonel Moammar Kadhafi, on the Chad-Sudan crisis.