DAKAR, Senegal - The presidents of Sudan and Chad signed a peace agreement Thursday to prevent armed groups operating along their shared borders from destabilizing the region, officials said.
If successful, the deal would be a small step toward ending violence in Sudan's Darfur region.
The agreement was signed by Sudan's Omar al-Bashir and Chad's Idriss Deby and came even as Chad accused Sudan of backing a new rebel advance into its territory.
The peace deal commits the two nations to implementing past accords that have so far failed to help end violence in the area. It calls for the establishment of a monitoring group of foreign ministers from each country that would meet monthly to be sure there are no violations.
A text of the agreement said the two leaders agreed to "inhibit all activities of armed groups and prevent the use of our respective territories for the destabilization of one or the other of our states."
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade brokered the deal at his palace in the capital. The country is hosting a summit of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, the world's largest Muslim organization, in Dakar.
Wade has tried to cast himself as a continental peacemaker and had hoped to bring the two leaders together to sign a peace deal on the eve of the summit. But Wednesday's talks were canceled after al-Bashir, who was in Dakar, failed to show up.
Chad's government issued a statement Thursday accusing Sudan of launching "several heavily armed columns" against Chad on Wednesday. The Chadian government called the fighters "mercenaries," its term for Chadian rebels it accuses Sudan of backing, and said they had crossed from Sudan and reached a border town, Moudeina.
Deby has accused Sudanese authorities of arming rebels who launched a failed assault last month on the Chadian capital, N'djamena. The rebels reached the gate of the presidential palace, but fled toward Sudan after Chad's army repelled them in fighting that left hundreds dead.
Sudan has repeatedly accused Chad of supporting Darfur rebels.
