Chad’s Deby accuses Sudan of planning new attack

Dec 27, 2005 (NDJAMENA) — Chad’s President Idriss Deby late Monday accused neighbouring Sudan of preparing a new “aggression” by Chadian rebel groups operating out of Sudanese territory, after an attack on the eastern border town of Adre on December 18.

“I do not rule out the Khartoum government repeating another aggression against Chad,” Deby told reporters here after a two-hour meeting with Central African Republic President Francois Bozize.

Such an attack was being planned at El Geinena in western Sudan, “where Sudan has sent a motorized column some 50 vehicles strong,” Deby declared.

“We strongly fear that through these actions the CAR (Central African Republic) will also be destabilized,” he added.

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) had on Sunday urged Sudan and Chad to exercise self-restraint to defuse the rapidly escalating tension between the two neighbours.

The secretary general of the world’s largest Islamic body, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, said the two countries should “demonstrate self-restraint and calm the situation,” following Ndjamena’s accusation that Khartoum was trying to destabilise its government.

The African Union said Saturday it had sent a delegation to Chad and Sudan in a bid to defuse tensions as Chad declared it was in a ”state of belligerence” with Sudan.

The mission was sent as already strained ties between the two nations plummeted on Friday with Chad’s declaration, after increasingly bitter accusations have been lobbed back and forth by the two capitals.

Ndjamena charges that Khartoum is trying to destabilise Chad by hosting rebels and a growing number of Chadian army deserters in western Sudan, from where an attack was launched on Adre.

Several new rebel groups have sprung up recently in eastern Chad, a region inundated by some 200,000 refugees from the civil war in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Khartoum had accused Ndjamena of deploying planes and troops on its territory before the latest incident.

(AFP/ST)