CHAD: Fighting on two fronts in chaotic east
Oct 30, 2006 (AM TIMAN) — Even as the bloody fallout from fighting between the Chad army and rebels at Am Timan in southern Chad is still being counted, new clashes have erupted nearby, while further north the Darfur war has reportedly spilled into eastern Chad for the second time in a month.
Recalling fighting last week in Am Timan, a soldier who asked not to be named said: “The rebels came on Monday 23 October, the day of the Ramadan celebration. The combat started five kilometres north of the town and continued for 15 hours. Finally, the rebels infiltrated Am Timan, targeted the local administration, and stole munitions.”
Documents and papers rebels thrown out of the windows of administrative buildings in Am Timan are still blowing through the streets. There have been more than a dozen skirmishes in as many months between rebels who have vowed to overthrow Chadian President Idriss Deby and government army loyalists. However, most of the fighting has taken place in remote areas and there are usually few civilian casualties.
Rebels with the Union of Forces for Development and Democracy briefly occupied Am Timan before leaving. Two civilians were killed and the sub-prefect was injured, Ahmat Mahamat Bachir, Chad’s Interior minister, told IRIN on Saturday.
Colonel Nassour Nouki Charffadine, army chief of operations in Am Timan, said nine soldiers were killed and 10 injured in a firefight that also left 30 rebels dead and 80 injured. At Am Timan’s only hospital, doctors said they were treating 32 soldiers and 10 rebels.
New fighting
The rebels have engaged the government at another town, Saraf Bogou, according to a government statement on Sunday.
In a statement on Sunday morning, Chadian Defence Minister Bichara Issa Djadakkah said: “The defence forces have caught up with the attackers from Sudan who infiltrated at Goz Beida and Am Timan that they have been following since their departure from Am Timan. The clash took place Saraf Borgou, close to the Sudan border.”
One hundred rebels were killed and several others taken prisoner, as well as several Chadian soldiers, including army Chief of Staff Moussa Sougui, the statement said.
Rebels opposed to President Deby have been gaining in strength since 2004 when Deby announced that he would override the constitutional two-term limit and run again.
A coalition of three large rebel groups called the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) claimed responsibility for the occupation of Goz Beida and Am Timan last week. Rebel spokespeople could not be contacted by IRIN for comment on fighting over the weekend.
Second front
Adding further confusion to the mix for aid agencies working to service 12 refugee camps housing 220,000 refugees from Darfur, the Chadian government said in another statement at the weekend that Sudan’s air force dropped bombs on the border towns of Bahai, Tine, Karyari and Bamina on Friday.
“The Sudanese air force has taken as targets Chadian towns… destroying houses and tranquil lives of Chadians,” government spokesperson Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said.
Earlier in the month, scores of wounded soldiers and rebels flooded hospitals near Oure Cassoni, north of Abeche, after unrelated fighting between Sudan and rebels opposed to it spilled over the border near Tine.
Chad has blamed Sudan for backing rebels opposed to it. After rebels attacked the capital N’djamena in April Chad broke diplomatic relations with its neighbour, but the two have since made up. After the occupation of Am Timan last week, Chad again accused Sudan of backing rebels.
Khartoum has denied it is supporting the anti-Chad rebels. And Sudanese armed forces spokesman Sawarmy Khalid in Khartoum told IRIN on Sunday that Sudanese warplanes had not bombed towns inside Chad.
“The Chadian accusations are not true,” he said. “The Sudanese army and air force did not attack any cities in Chad. [Sudan does] not support any Chadian rebels.”
Humanitarian operations unaffected
While the fighting between army and rebels in the south of the country, and the alleged bombing near Tine in the north, is all taking place near humanitarian operations, aid agencies said their operations have not been adversely affected.
“Of course, we are threatened, but until now the fighting has been far enough away from our direct zone of operations,” said Ann Maymann, spokesperson for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) in N’djamena. “We hope they will stay that way with no direct fighting in civilian areas.”
“The issue of the bombing cannot be confirmed and has not had an impact on our operations,” Maymann added.
Nonetheless, the UN has been discussing the possibility of deploying peacekeepers on the ground in Chad at the same time as in Darfur to protect civilians and the dozen refugee camps housing 220,000 Sudanese refugees from Darfur.
Militias from the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan have been taking advantage of the lawless environment to attack Chadian border villages. More than 50,000 Chadians have fled their homes this year because of attacks, according to UNHCR.
In June, the UN Security Council made a mission to eastern Chad and senior UN officials met with President Deby and possible troop contributing countries, including France, which maintains a heavy military presence in its former colony.
Peacekeeping possible
UN Under-Secretary for Peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guehenno, told reporters in New York on Friday that the UN is sending an assessment mission to Chad to again look into the possibility of putting boots on the ground.
“We are very concerned by the deteriorating situation in Chad,” he said.
“We are looking at ways that a peace operation could prevent the tragedy of Darfur from expanding further in a bigger tragedy in Chad and the Central African Republic. We will be looking into different options,” he said. “We will be sending a mission to Chad and the Central African Republic to look into greater detail into what could be done.”
However, Roland Marchal, senior fellow at Sciences Po university in Paris said he does not think a military solution will work. “I would be extremely sceptical about any intervention if there is no political agreement on the ground first,” he said. “We need a true political settlement that could enforced and agreed on by all actors, which is not yet the case.”
France has a large military force in Chad and has provided surveillance, intelligence and logistical support to Chad’s army and was also part of discussions with UN officials in June.
But Marchal said France should not be expected to take a more hands-on approach, either to protect Deby’s government or civilians in eastern Chad, because of political sensitivities in France in the run-up to presidential elections next year.
“It would be extremely controversial for anybody in the French state to push for an involvement of this style throughout the electoral period as French people might ask why after 16 years of support are we still in this same situation,” Marchal said.
(IRIN)