US warns Sudan to stop support for Chad rebels

February 4, 2008 (WASHINGTON) — The U.S. said Monday it warned the Sudanese government to stop any support it might be giving to rebels in neighboring Chad.

“We’ve gone directly to very high levels of the Sudanese government to say that if there is any support from the Sudanese government to these rebels, that should end immediately,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

“And that any influence they might have with the rebels, they should use in order to tell them to withdraw,” he told reporters during the daily briefing in Washington.

The message was made from the “highest level” of the U.S. embassy in Khartoum to the Sudanese presidency and the foreign ministry, he added.

Sudan armed forces spokesman Osman Mohammed al-Agbash denied backing rebels who stormed into Ndjamena in a bid to oust President Idriss Deby, instead accusing Chad of interfering in its affairs ahead of U.N. talks on the crisis.

The Chadian government says it has quashed the rebellion that reached the capital Ndjamena and accused Sudanese helicopters and Antonov military aircraft of helping an attack on the eastern town of Adre near the border with Darfur.

(AFP)