Chad threatens to cut off oil pipeline
April 15, 2006 (N’DJAMENA) — Chad on Saturday threatened to cut off the flow of oil if the World Bank does not release funds frozen in a bank account in London.
The announcement, made in a statement from the government spokesman, followed a late night meeting between President Idriss Deby and his Cabinet ministers to discuss how to react following a rebel attack Thursday on the capital.
The government gave the World Bank until Tuesday to unfreeze the bank account or else it would shut down the pipeline that carries Chadian oil through Cameroon to terminals on the Atlantic Ocean.
The amount of oil Chad exports — 160,000 barrels per day — is very small by world standards, but the threat demonstrates the government’s desperation for international intervention in the country. While a rebel attack Thursday on the capital was defeated, the rebels are believed to be regrouping nearby and the threat of a violent overthrow of Deby’s government has not diminished.
As Africa’s newest oil producer, Chad had reached a deal with the World Bank for the financing of a pipeline on condition that most of the revenues would be used to alleviate poverty. Earlier this year, Deby broke that deal so he could use the money to finance his military and the World Bank suspended US$124 million (A102.5 million) in aid to his government.
An Exxon Mobil-led consortium exported 133 million barrels of oil from Chad between October 2003 and December 2005, according to the World Bank. Chad, which receives a 12.5 percent royalty on each barrel exported, earned US$307 million (about A250 million), the bank said.
Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor, the communications minister and government spokesman, said that attempts to restrict how the government spends its oil revenues was a violation of Chad’s sovereignty. He said government officials would enter into negotiations with the consortium so that oil revenues would no longer be deposited into Western banks, but given directly to the government.
The government presumably wants the frozen funds to finance the military’s fight against the rebels. The threat to cut off the oil also puts pressure on the consortium to cooperate, since it has invested US$4.2 billion (A3.47 billion) in the pipeline.
The government also called for a peace rally in central N’djamena on Saturday to demonstrate Deby’s popularity.
Deby had earlier announced that he was severing relations with neighboring Sudan and he threatened to expel 200,000 Sudanese refugees from his country if the international community did not do more to stop what he claimed were Sudanese efforts to destabilize his government.
Deby repeatedly has accused Sudan of hiring mercenaries to overthrow his government. Sudan has denied the accusation, and in turn has accused Chad of supporting fighters in its volatile Darfur region, where Arab militias and African rebels have fought for nearly three years.
“The international community has been totally deaf and dumb on the situation between Sudan and Chad,” Deby said after an emergency Cabinet meeting Thursday. They “need to understand the situation and that enough is enough.”
In a press statement read on Sudan’s state-run radio Friday, the foreign affairs ministry said the Sudanese government was a good neighbor and had never interfered with Chad’s internal politics.
But the Central African Republic said Friday it was closing its border with Sudan after the rebels passed through the northern part of the country while on their way from Sudan to attack N’djamena.
“We were shocked to hear that rebel groups coming from Sudan have crossed the CAR to go and attack a friendly country,” Foreign Minister Jean Paul Ngoupande told The Associated Press. “The closing of our border is our way to express our dissatisfaction with Sudanese aggression.”
The rebels released a statement on their Web site, again condemning Deby’s refusal to negotiate with them. A key issue has been Deby’s decision to change the constitution so he can run for a third term as president in elections set for May 3.
“The regime of Idriss Deby is the basis of the crisis in this part of the African continent,” the rebel statement said.
Chad, an arid, landlocked country about three times the size of France, has been wracked by violence for most of its history, including more than 30 years of civil war since gaining independence from France in 1960 and various small-scale insurgencies since 1998.
The crisis in Darfur, which Sudan accuses Deby of fomenting, and internal dissension over how to spend oil revenues have weakened Deby, who has led Chad since seizing power in a coup in 1990.
Sudan has accused Chad of supporting rebels in Darfur, where Arab militias and rebels have fought for nearly three years. Some 180,000 people have died in Darfur in western Sudan over the past three years, some at the hands of Arab militias, many from disease and hunger.
While observers believe Sudan has provided at least some support to the Chadian rebels as revenge, the insurgents are led by former senior military officers who until recently served under Deby. There has been enormous dissent within Deby’s clan over his decision to run for a third term and over how royalties from recently exploited oil reserves have disappeared.
Army officers first attempted to oust Deby on March 14 by trying to seize power while he was out of the country.
(ST/AP)