Chad calls African Union to move summit out of Sudan

Dec 28, 2005 (ABUJA) — Chad’s President Idriss Deby has called for the January African Union summit to be moved out of Sudan, accusing the country of supporting attacks on Chad and referring to the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Deby also called on the AU to investigate Chad’s claims that neighboring Sudan backs rebels who attacked a town in eastern Chad on Dec. 18. Sudan has denied the accusations. Last month, African Union Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare expressed concern that the unrest in eastern Chad was a threat to regional security.

Deby made his appeals during a meeting Tuesday with the current AU chairman, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo. The two met at Obasanjo’s farm outside Lagos, where the Nigerian leader was on a working vacation.

“A country with more than 2 million displaced persons does not deserve to host a summit of the AU,” Deby told reporters after the meeting.

His comments on the displaced referred to Darfur, the western region of Sudan where the Sudanese government is accused of unleashing murderous militia to put down a civil war. The United Nations estimates that 180,000 people have died in the conflict, mainly through famine and disease. Several million more have either fled into Chad or to camps inside Sudan.

Deby said the summit should be held in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, and that Obasanjo should retain the rotating chairmanship of the AU.

Obsanjo had no immediate comment. At AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Wednesday, spokeswoman Habiba Majiore said the 53-nation bloc had no plans to cancel the Khartoum summit.

“The summit will take place in Khartoum from Jan. 16 to Jan. 24,” she said.

Sudan’s President Omar el-Bashir is set to become the next chairman of the African Union during the summit.

Insurgents clashed with security forces, leading to the death of than 300 people, mainly rebels, in Adre on Dec. 18. The town is on the border with Sudan, some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) east of the Chadian capital of N’djamena.

The Chadian army said the clash in Adre was with two rebel groups _ the Rally for Democracy and Freedom and the Foundation for Change, Unity and Democracy.

The rebel soldiers and former high-ranking government officials have formed the Foundation for Change, Unity and Democracy that reportedly seeks to overthrow Deby, although its aims are not clear.

It is not clear who makes up the Rally for Democracy and Freedom.

(AP/ST)