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Minister says Obasanjo seeking peace in Chad

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is known for working for peace across Africa and will do no less now that a conflict has reached his country's borders, his minister of information said on Wednesday.

"Knowing the president, I believe he is already in consultations with his brother African heads of state," Information Minister Frank Nweke said in an interview during a visit to London, adding Obasanjo would work through the African Union (AU) to try to end fighting in Chad, with which Nigeria shares a border.

Obasanjo had said when Chadian rebels attacked the Chadian capital last week that he was concerned fighting could escalate and thousands of Chadian refugees could cross into Nigeria. The rebel attack on the Chadian capital was repelled, but the rebels are regrouping in their bases in eastern Chad and western Sudan.

As chairman of the AU, Obasanjo led peacemaking efforts in Sudan's Darfur region, Ivory Coast, Togo and elsewhere, and continued after the rotating AU chairmanship passed earlier this year to Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso. Obasanjo is hosting Darfur peace talks in his capital, Abuja.

"Nigeria has never shied away from conflict resolution on the continent of Africa," Nweke said, adding conflict anywhere on the continent could affect the stability of any African nation.

Observers had long expressed concern fighting in Darfur could destabilize the region, and the violence in Chad seems to bear that out.

Chad, which recently began exporting oil, has a history of civil strife but had appeared to be relatively stable in recent years, Nweke said.

"For the place to boil over again is unfortunate," he said.

Chadian President Idriss Deby has accused Sudan of supporting the rebels -- a charge Sudan denies -- and ended Chad's participation in the talks hosted by Nigeria aimed at ending the Darfur conflict.

Nweke said that he did not believe Chad's move and Chadian-Sudanese tensions would derail the Darfur talks, which have dragged on for months with little sign of progress.
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