Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Chadian President Idriss Deby signed a peace agreement designed to end cross-border rebel attacks today.
The signing, witnessed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, also aims to revive a string of past pacts that have failed to end fighting on both sides of the Chad-Sudan border in a region which includes Sudan's conflict-ravaged Darfur area.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir at the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) summit. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly
"We solemnly pledge to ban the activities of all armed groups and to prevent the use of our respective territories to destabilise one or other of our states," said the agreement, brokered by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.
The two oil-producing countries agreed to "normalise relations" and put a "definitive end" to their differences.
Foreign diplomats say Chadian rebels have regularly used the Darfur border region as a base from which to launch incursions into Chad. Sudan has repeatedly accused Chad's government of backing Darfuri rebel groups.
The barren border areas of eastern Chad are home to half a million displaced, including Chadians uprooted by fighting and refugees from Darfur, where about 200,000 people have been killed in political and ethnic violence since 2003.