Sudanese minister accuses Chad of aiding paramilitaries, demands action

January 3, 2025 (PORT SUDAN) – A Sudanese minister on Friday called on the country’s political and military leaders to take decisive action against what he described as Chadian aggression, accusing its neighbour of supporting paramilitary forces fighting the Sudanese army.

The Sudanese government accuses Chad of complicity in the conflict by allowing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to use its territory to receive military equipment from the United Arab Emirates.

“It is time for the Sudanese government, at the level of political and military leadership, to take a decision commensurate with the escalating level of Chadian aggression against Sudan,” Minerals Minister Mohamed Bashir Abunommo said in a Facebook post.

Abunommo called for a meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs, defence, culture, and information to coordinate a response “to confront this brutal aggression, which is increasing in intensity every day.”

The minister, who is a prominent figure of the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Arko Minawi, also expressed surprise at a congratulatory message sent by Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby to the head of Sudan’s ruling council on the occasion of Sudan’s National Day.

“How can a president disregard all the ties of blood and eternal neighbourliness between the two brotherly countries and make his country a launching pad for all the killing and destruction flowing into Sudan?” he asked.

He accused Chad of facilitating the flow of weapons with the aim of “controlling Sudan or overthrowing the city of El Fasher as a plan to establish a state for the scattered Arabs with direct support from the United Arab Emirates.”

On December 2, the Sudanese Ministry of Defence said the RSF had used drones supplied by the UAE to bomb sites in Omdurman and that one of the aircraft took off from inside Chad.