calls on Chadians to mobilise themselves against Sudanese aggression.
Relations between the two states have deteriorated since Chad accused Sudan of being behind Sunday’s attack on Adre, which left about 100 people dead.
The strong language in the statement will alarm observers who have already warned that tensions along the Chad-Sudan border are nearing breaking point.
In the aftermath of Sunday’s attack, Chad accused Sudan of being directly involved in helping to support the Chadian rebels.
But the statement issued by Chad’s government on Friday afternoon is the most aggressive yet.
It claims that not only was Sudan behind the attack on Adre, but it also accuses Sudanese militia of making daily incursions into Chad, stealing cattle, killing innocent people and burning villages on the Chadian border.
Sudan has some form in supporting rebels in neighbouring countries, having for years provided arms and refuge to Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army.
There’s more here:
Chad has accused the Sudanese government of directing Sunday’s twin assaults against Adre by Chadian rebels of the recently formed Rally for Democracy and Liberty (RDL) group, which has vowed to topple Deby.
The Chad rebels include army deserters and former comrades in arms of President Deby who helped bring him to power in a 1990 rebellion. But they now say he is corrupt and vow to remove him from the leadership of Africa”s newest oil producer.
Chad says its forces repulsed the assaults, killing about 300 of the attackers, pursuing the rebels over the border into Sudan and destroying their bases there.
The RDL rebels reject this government version of the battle for Adre. They say they only lost nine men and that more than 70 government troops were killed. They also say they destroyed two helicopters and several tanks and other vehicles.
There has been no independent confirmation of either version. […]
Chad urged the United Nations Security Council on Thursday to help stop conflict in Darfur and the border area spreading.
It said on Friday it welcomed condemnation of the attacks on Adre by the U.N. and by foreign governments like France and urged the African Union (AU) and other regional bodies to do the same.
Following the Adre attacks Chad has made clear it objects to Sudan hosting a scheduled summit of AU heads of state in Khartoum next month [see here]. It has also called on the AU not to allow al-Bashir to become the next chairman of the continental body.
Eastern Chad is now home to hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees driven from Darfur by the government-backed Janjaweed militias. There are tragic echoes here of the Rwandan genocide, with the fleeing Tutsis housed in camps in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, and the resulting descent of that country into a prolonged and bloody war (the deadliest conflict since World War II, according to Wikipedia) which still rumbles on despite numerous peace initiatives.
For the Darfur refugees, it just gets worse and worse.
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