Chad summons Sudan envoy on alleged arming of rebels

November 28, 2007 (NDJAMENA) — Chad’s foreign minister summoned the Sudanese ambassador Wednesday to protest about Khartoum’s alleged arming of Chadian rebels who clashed with the army, an official said.

“Foreign Minister Ahmat Allami received the Sudanese ambassador in Ndjamena to deliver a strong protest on the unfriendly attitude of Khartoum, which armed and equipped the rebels,” the ministry official said.

Allami accused Sudan of violating October’s Syrte peace agreement between the Chadian government and the rebels, the official added.

Government forces and rebels of the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) clashed near Abou Goulem, close to the Sudan-Chad border.

It was the latest in a series of skirmishes following the collapse last weekend of the truce signed between the government and four rebel groups in Syrte, Libya on October 25.

Sudan and Libya had sponsored the talks which led to the accord.

The army said it had killed hundreds of rebels, while the UFDD said its fighters had killed 200 troops.

Chad’s intelligence chief, General Ismael Chaibo, on Tuesday accused Sudan of arming the rebels as troops showed off the battleground with bodies still lying among smouldering military vehicles.

“Sudan violated the peace agreement,” Chaibo said in Abeche, the main town in eastern Chad. “It made promises related to the deal about the containment and disarmament of the rebels. Unfortunately it didn’t want to respect its promises.”

Dozens of cases of ammunition marked Sudan and several weapons, some of them still in their packaging, were displayed on the battlefield. The intelligence chief said the rebels had fled the scene and headed for the border with Sudan, 60 kilometres (37 miles) to the east.

Ndjamena had warned Khartoum on Sunday it would have to accept “a large part of responsibility in the unavoidable resumption of hostilities if the incursion of armed elements coming from Sudan” did not stop immediately.

The rebels however accused Chad of failing to implement the peace deal, which had therefore lapsed a month after it was signed.

They also said they had been given an ultimatum to leave Sudan on Sunday.

Allami also saw the ambassadors of Libya and Saudi Arabia, both mediating countries, on Wednesday to condemn Sudan’s actions, the foreign ministry official said.

Saudi Arabia hosted the signing of a reconciliation agreeement on May 3 between Chad and Sudan, which have regularly accused of each other of sheltering their respective rebel movements.

The two neighbours agreed “to prevent the use of their territory to shelter, mobilize, train, transit or finance armed opposition movements.”

They also decided “to work immediately to distance these movements from their territory,” while maintaining “respect for the sovereignty and (territorial) integrity” of both countries.

The latest fighting comes as the European Union is due to start deploying up to 4,000 troops to Chad and the Central African Republic to help deal with the refugee crisis stemming from Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region over their eastern border.

(AFP)