Violence threatens to turn eastern Chad into another Darfur
Feb 19, 2007 (ABECHE, Chad) — Attacks on civilians and aid groups have intensified sharply along the Chad-Sudan border in the last two weeks, as the violence in Darfur continues to spill over into its African neighbor.
The violence is leading the United Nations to consider a new option: Stymied by a lack of progress on a proposal to put peacekeepers in Sudan’s Darfur region, it now is weighing trying to put more than 10,000 peacekeepers in Chad along its border with Sudan.
More than 230,000 Darfur refugees have fled to Chad during four years of ethnic chaos in Darfur fueled by the Sudanese government. In all, an estimated 2.5 million in Darfur have fled their homes and another 200,000 have died since 2003.
The Arab-dominated Sudanese government backs janjaweed militias of nomadic Arabs in a brutal counterinsurgency in Darfur against local rebels and the ethnic African tribes they come from, the U.N. says.
But Darfur refugees are not the only ones spilling over the porous border between Sudan and Chad these days: Various rebel groups and militias also roam the vast, arid region _ spreading Darfur-type violence that has already chased over 110,000 Chadians from their homes.
Attacks on civilians have intensified along the northern stretches of the frontier over the last two weeks, the British aid group Oxfam said recently. And farther south along the 500 kilometer border, dozens of civilians have been killed over the last few weeks, Oxfam said.
“Traditional rivalries are spiraling into major conflict as armed groups become more organized, more numerous and better equipped,” the aid group said. “Inter-ethnic clashes and attacks on villages, including cross-border raids from neighbouring Darfur, are being carried out with impunity.”
Chad supports the Darfur rebellion against the Sudanese government, and Sudan strongly backs Chadian rebels settled in Darfur, Western observers say. The Chadian rebels based in Sudan launched several raids last year, briefly taking the major eastern Chad town of Abeche and attacking the capital, N’djamena.
These days, reports of smaller clashes come almost daily.
So far, none of the 12 Darfur refugee camps in Chad have been directly attacked, but neighboring villages are being plundered, officials say.
“It’s impossible to say how many raids are directly conducted by forces from Sudan, but what is striking is that we now witness a level of violence completely unknown to Chad before,” said Serge Male, the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Chad.
A 7,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force has been struggling to quell the ongoing violence in Darfur but Sudan’s president has rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for 22,000 U.N. peacekeepers to replace the AU force. He also has continued to delay on a compromise deal for a joint U.N. and African Union force.
That has led top U.N. officials to consider a proposal to put peacekeepers along the Sudan-Chad border instead.
Chad’s President Idriss Deby has accepted the idea of such a force in principle, calling on the international community to help protect Chad and the Darfur refugees. But he is wary that some Security Council members, mainly the U.S., will want to use the force as a starting point for a possible deployment into Darfur, Western officials here say.
“He doesn’t want to be seen as facilitating a possible invasion of a neighboring state, even Sudan,” said one Western official in the Chadian capital, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity.
Last week, Chad, Sudan and the Central African Republic signed a declaration, mediated by France, to not support armed rebel movemetns on each other’s territories. But Sudan and Chad signed a similar agreement a year ago to little apparent effect.
Meanwhile, aid groups continue to struggle amid the rising violence.
UNHCR says it has a contingency plan for up to 50,000 more people to arrive from Darfur. It also is trying to relocate the Darfur refugee camps farther east from the border with Sudan to ease the strain on Chad’s natural resources and the competition between Darfur refugees and Chadian villagers, who now often skirmish over firewood or water.
“We don’t want to be pessimistic, but we really hope the next rainy season will give us some reprieve,” said Angele Djohossou, the chief protection officer for UNCHR in eastern Chad.
She said the seasonal rains, due in July, tend to prevent military operations and should ease the urgent problem of lack of water.
The Chadian army is trying to protect the Darfur refugee camps but can’t do much because it needs to focus on protecting the border, said Gen. Kalimi Sangui Abdalla, who commands Chadian military operations on the eastern border.
“This is why we will welcome United Nations forces,” he said.
(AP)