Sudan and Uganda are in contact to arrange the deployment of Egyptian and Libyan monitors to prevent border violations by opposition rebels, a senior Sudanese foreign ministry official said Monday.
The monitors are expected to check that no support reaches the opposition Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) from Uganda and to help relocate the Ugandan opposition Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) away from the border further into Sudanese territory.
The deployment of the monitors was agreed at an October 6-7 meeting in Khartoum of experts from Sudan, Uganda, Egypt, Libya and the US-based Carter Center which also agreed on the relocation of the LRA.
Sudan's State Foreign Minister Ali Abdel Rahman Nimeiri also told reporters that although a meeting of a technical committee originally scheduled for last Friday in Kampala was postponed, contacts between officials of the two governments were continuing to arrange for the deployment.
Nimeiri said diplomatic representation would be re-established in the coming days, with two Sudanese diplomats to be stationed at the Libyan embassy in Kampala and two Ugandan diplomats at the Kenyan embassy in Khartoum.
Sudan and Uganda have long mistrusted each other, with Khartoum accusing Uganda of supporting the SPLA and Kampala insisting that Sudan backs the LRA. But last month they agreed to restore relations, which were severed in 1994 – KHARTOUM (AFP)
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