Government Attacks Rebels in Chad
Chadian forces target rebel positions near the Sudanese border
Apr 7, 2007
Chad's government forces have resumed fighting with rebels in the eastern part of the country. According to Reuters, the renewed conflict is in retaliation to a rebel raid launched from Sudan into Chad within the last week. The attacks, allegedly from the Sudanese militia known as the Janjaweed, killed at least 65 people. Rebels also set two villages ablaze in their onslaught and as many as 8,000 civilians fled their homes in search of safety.
The latest fighting is the first time since February that rebels and Chadian soldiers have engaged in battle. Chadian government forces responded to the raids by bombarding rebel positions close to Sudan. Chad's Foreign Minister said that the fighting originated in Sudan but Khartoum has denied these allegations.
Both countries accuse the other's government of sponsoring rebel forces in neighbouring states. Libya's leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, has attempted to mediate talks between the two sides and although he helped restore diplomatic ties in August, he has been largely unsuccessful in resolving the conflict.
Peacekeeping mission
The Chad-Sudanese border is a particularly dangerous zone where refugees are trapped between government forces and rebel rivals. An African Union (AU) force of 7,000 peacekeepers is in the Darfur region but remain unable to deal with the scale of brutality. Their mission is due to expire on June 30.
The United Nations has offered on several occasions to assist AU forces with a larger UN presence. Khartoum, however, has rejected blue helmet deployment inside Sudan, saying that the UN should only provide logistical support to the AU. N'Djamena insists that only police and paramilitary gendarmes should be present to patrol Chad.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon continues the push to establish a proposed 21,000-strong AU-UN hybrid to alleviate the brutality that continues to affect civilians in Chad, Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR). Ban is scheduled to meet in Addis Ababa on April 9 to discuss a "heavy support package" for Darfur.
Washington will also send its Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte, to Sudan and Libya next week to discuss the crisis in Darfur. While the UN and United States continue to offer solutions, Muammar Gaddafi maintains that the reliance on Western diplomacy should be avoided and that African solutions are required for African conflicts.
'Crucible of violence'
The cross-border fighting is part of an ongoing four-year humanitarian crisis in Darfur, which has killed 200,000 and displaced approximately 2.5 million. Hostilities in the region have formed a triangle that has been referred to as 'a crucible of violence' in Chad, Sudan and CAR. Washington has said the situation in Darfur is 'genocide,' a term that Sudan has denied.
