Sudan’s Defense minister, Abdel Rahim Hussein said Wednesday that a tripartite force composed of Chad, Libya and Sudan will be formed soon to monitor their common borders.
Sudan and Chad established a joint force in January 2010 to monitor their borders within the framework of a normalisation process after long years of proxy war in Darfur and eastern Chad.
As some of the rebel groups supported in the past by the two countries moved to the Central African Republic (CAR), Khartoum and Ndjamena convinced the CAR government in Banguiir to form a joint force between the three countries.
Speaking in a press conference with his Chadian counterpart in Khartoum on Wednesday, Abdel-Rahim said the two countries will establish another tripartite force with Libya to monitor their porous borders to prevent weapons and drugs smuggling and infiltration of rebel groups.
Abdel-Rahim said that the new tripartite force will operate on the common borders between Libya, Chad and Sudan and will benefit from the two-year experience the two armies have of working together.
He further pointed out that military experts are working on the necessary arrangements before to deploy the tripartite force after a meeting held recently with Libyan military.
After the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime weapons were smuggled to many neighbouring countries where Al-Qaeda fighters and rebel groups recently showed their close cooperation particularly in Mali.
The situation is considered very seriously by many countries in the Sahel region, but also by the newly established Libyan government. Tripoli hosts on Friday senior military officials from all its neighbours before a ministerial meeting to discuss the border control on Sunday.
Sudan accused Gaddafi of supporting Darfur rebels but admitted it supported the Libyanrevolutionaries - the National Transitional Council - last year to overthrow his regime.
(Source: Sudan Tribune)
