Sudan denies Chad accusations over rebels’ attack
April 1, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese army denied on Tuesday Chadian accusations that Sudan was behind recent fighting between rebel and government forces and said it was adhering to a peace deal between the two neighbors.
The Defence Ministry said Chadian government forces had beaten back the rebel attack on Ade. He charged that Sudan had ordered the rebel attack violating a non-aggression pact signed in Senegal by the presidents of Sudan and Chad on March 13.
“The Sudanese armed forces operate within Sudan’s borders. What’s going on is an internal Chadian affair and the Sudanese armed forces have nothing to do with it,” Major Abdul Samie Haj Ahmed said in a press statement to AFP.
“The Sudanese armed forces is committed to all agreements, including the Dakar agreement,” Haj Ahmed insisted.
An alliance of three rebel groups crossed the whole of southern Chad from Sudan early this year and launched an assault on N’Djamena on Feb. 2-3.
They were driven out by Deby’s troops with French military intelligence and reconnaissance support, after the head of state was holed up in his palace and an estimated 400 people were killed and thousands fled across the border.
“President Bashir has not changed and continues to try to destroy Chad. We call on the international community to bear witness that, despite the Dakar accord, he is attacking us again today,” Chadian Prime Minister Nouradine Delwa Kassire Coumakoye said in a briefing to foreign ambassadors in N’Djamena.
He said the rebel raiders travelled 78 km (50 miles) from inside Sudan to attack Ade across the border.
Chad urged mediators of the Dakar accord – Senegal, Gabon, Congo and Libya – to “assume their responsibilities to end this aggression with its unforseeable consequences.”
Ali Gadaye, spokesman for the Chadian rebel National Alliance, said a three-hour battle followed the attack on Ade.
But he denied the rebel force had crossed from Sudan.
“That’s the Chadian government’s same old song,” Gadaye said, adding the rebels had advanced from positions inside Chad.
A spokesman for a European Union military force deployed in eastern Chad to protect refugees and civilians told Reuters he had no immediate information about the rebel attack on Ade.
Chadian rebel groups, which have fought for more than two years against Deby, said the Dakar accord did not concern them and vowed to continue their efforts to topple him.
(ST)
Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters