Sudan-Chad tension dominates France-Africa summit
Feb 15, 2007 (CANNES, France) — Tension between Chad and Sudan over refugees and fighting on both sides of their border dominated a summit of African nations hosted by France on Thursday.
Chad accused Sudan of attacking its territory, but agreed to enter talks with Khartoum on the fighting in Darfur despite saying beforehand that the meeting would be “useless”.
Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has resisted pressure to let U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur, is to meet his counterparts from Chad and Central African Republic later on Thursday, a source close to French President Jacques Chirac said.
Chad, however, said the meeting on the sidelines of the summit in the French seaside resort of Cannes was a smokescreen by Khartoum, which it accuses of supporting rebels who have entered Chad from Darfur and clashed with government forces.
“This same meeting is useless because it is aimed at distracting international public opinion and moving it away from the real problem, which is that Sudan is attacking Chad. We are not in Cannes to entertain the crowd,” Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-Mi told Reuters.
Conflict in Darfur has spilled over into Central African Republic and Chad, heightening fears of instability spreading across the region.
“This meeting is inopportune because an initiative by Libya is already underway. Sudan must for once respect the commitments it has made and not support subversion against Chad anymore,” he said. Libya has acted as a mediator in several conflicts.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and African Union President John Kufuor would also attend the meeting, which was scheduled for Thursday afternoon, the source said.
“ANOTHER DARFUR”
The U.N. Security Council has proposed sending peacekeepers to secure Darfur’s border area outside Sudan, and the council was due to meet on Thursday to discuss a proposal to deploy a mission in eastern Chad, which borders Darfur.
Aid agency Oxfam urged the international community to tackle rising violence in eastern Chad before it becomes “another Darfur”. Attacks from Darfur have exacerbated ethnic conflict and a rebellion there, displacing tens of thousands of people.
A separate deployment of 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur would support the 7,000-strong African Union mission there.
Experts say 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and 2.5 million others driven from their homes.
In a speech to delegates from 48 of Africa’s 53 countries, Chirac called on Khartoum to listen the international community and the African Union, and let U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur.
“I call upon the belligerents and the government of Sudan to listen to their voices, to agree to the deployment of a peace force, to cease the attacks, to protect the civilian population and humanitarian workers,” he said.
The U.S. special envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, said on Wednesday he feared aid groups could be forced out of Darfur and pro-government Janjaweed militia would try to close camps sheltering millions, resulting in a “blood bath”.
Washington describes the violence in Darfur as genocide — a charge the Islamic government in Khartoum denies.
The Darfur talks drew attention to a more immediate crisis than the summit’s afternoon schedule of round-table discussions on Africa’s commodities and the continent’s place in the world.
Foreign powers are competing for Africa’s vast natural resources, which will be discussed at one of the three round-table meetings on Thursday.
(Reuters)