French FM in Chad to discuss Darfur crisis

NDJAMENA, Feb 19 (AFP) — French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin arrived in Chad on Thursday for a day-long visit aimed at discussing the humanitarian crisis in the neighbouring Sudanese region of Darfur.

De Villepin was to hold talks in the evening with Chadian President Idriss Deby, whose country is now home to thousands of refugees who have fled fighting between Sudanese government forces and rebels in Darfur.

Shortly after his arrival, De Villepin left the capital Ndjamena to visit the Forchana refugee camp in the east of Chad, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Sudanese border, and looked after by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

About 3,000 people have been killed and another 670,000 displaced within Sudan itself by the war between rebels drawn mainly from the region’s non-Arab minorities and government troops and their Arab militia allies.

Meanwhile, some 100,000 Sudanese are estimated to have fled across the border into Chad because of the rebellion, which erupted a year ago over the western Darfur region’s alleged economic neglect by the government.

De Villepin is scheduled to visit the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Friday, the first-ever visit of a French foreign minister to the country.

As well as the situation in Darfur, he is expected to discuss with President Omar al-Beshir the peace process aimed at ending 21 years of conflict that pitted the south, where most observe traditional African religions and Christianity, against the Muslim, Arabised north.