Chad and Sudan

An instructive analysis from Times online on the crisis in Chad (via):

What is the background to today’s attempted coup?

Today’s fighting in N’djamena is the result of the West not having successfully intervened to stop the trouble in Darfur, Sudan. The situation has been described as genocide but over the past three years it has just got worse and worse. Darfur is bandit country now with armed gangs roaming around under no control.

The Sudanese and Chadian governments have armed the rival militias and in doing so they have let the genie out the bottle. Now, even if they wanted to do so, it is unlikely they could get it back in. At the same time the Sudanese government has prevented the UN from establishing a credible force in the area.

The African Union has something like 700 troops in a province which is larger than France. It’s a totally ineffective international effort to bring stability to the region and as result the neighbouring states have been dragged in.

The east of Chad and the Darfur region of western Sudan are effectively the same place – the border between them is arbitrary and the same tribes live on both sides. They have no allegiance to either country, only to their clans.

Why is Sudan accused of backing the rebels?

The Zagawa tribe, the tribe to which Chad’s President Deby belongs, was one of the three main tribes involved in the fighting against the Sudanese Government in the early days of the Darfur conflict.

Now the Sudanese has started backing the anti-government rebels in Chad in retaliation. At best, they say that since coming to power in 1990 President Deby has turned a blind eye to anti-Sudan movements in Chad, at worst he supported them and fuelled the conflict.

The EU, meanwhile, has appealed for calm:

In a statement released in Austria, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the 25-nation bloc, the EU urged all states in the area, in particular Chad and Sudan, to “take the necessary steps to restore calm as soon as possible.”

Where would we be without the sensible voice of the EU?