US says Sudan may have been involved in Chad’s unrest

April 17, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — The United States suggested that Sudan may have been involved in last week’s failed offensive by rebels in neighboring Chad, and said it warned Khartoum such action was “unacceptable.”

Washington stopped short of officially endorsing Chad’s allegations that the Sudanese had armed the rebels who stormed N’Djamena on Thursday seeking to overthrow President Idriss Deby Itno.

But a senior State Department official, who asked not to be named, told reporters, “I’m not going to wave you off that there was some involvement” by the regime of President Omar al-Beshir in Khartoum.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, speaking at his daily press briefing, said there was no “definitive public conclusion” of a Sudanese role in the Chadian rebel assault. But he also pointed to the possibility.

“We have made very clear to the government of Sudan that that kind of future behavior is just unacceptable,” McCormack said.

He added that US, European Union and African Union officials had contacted many African governments to drive home the warning against arming or aiding groups seeking to invade another country.

Khartoum has denied any involvement in the move against Deby’s government, which it believes is supporting rebels battling government-backed militia in Sudan’s bloodstained western region of Darfur.

The violence in Chad has been seen as a spillover of the three-year-old conflict in Darfur, which the United States brands genocide. It has left up to 300,000 people dead from attacks and disease, and two million homeless.

(ST/AFP)