deployment of the Chadian air force into Sudanese airspace, which the Chadian government denies.
The leaders of Sudan and Chad signed an agreement in Saudi Arabia on 3 May 2007 to stop fighting from the Darfur conflict along their countries' 1,000-kilometre (600 mi) border.
Eastern Front
The Eastern Front, whose chairman is the current presidential adviser Mr. Musa Mohamed Ahmed, was a coalition of rebel groups operating in eastern Sudan along the border with Eritrea, particularly the states of Red Sea and Kassala. While the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) was the primary member of the Eastern Front, the SPLA was obliged to leave by the January 2005 agreement that ended the Second Sudanese Civil War. Their place was taken in February 2004 after the merger of the larger Hausa and Beja Congress with the smaller Rashaida Free Lions, two tribal-based groups of the Arabized Beja and the Arab Rashaida people, respectively.
Both the Free Lions and the Beja Congress stated that government inequity in the distribution of oil profits, and for the Beja the often uncompromising Arabization campaign of the central government, was the cause of their rebellion. They demanded to have a greater say in the composition of the national government, which has been seen as a destabilizing influence on the agreement ending the conflict in Southern Sudan.
The Eritrean government in mid-2006 dramatically changed its position on the conflict. From being the main supporter of the Eastern Front, it decided that bringing the Sudanese government around the negotiating table for a possible agreement with the rebels would be in its best interests.
It was successful in its attempts and on 19 June 2006, the two sides signed an agreement on declaration of principles. This was the start of four months of Eritrean-mediated negotiations for a comprehensive peace agreement between the Sudanese government and the Eastern Front, which
