Chad tells Sudan to stop Arab militia border raids
N’DJAMENA, May 9 (Reuters) – Chad said on Sunday Arab militias backed by neighbouring Sudan had carried out fresh incursions into its territory, and warned Khartoum to stop such attacks or face the consequences.
Chad’s acting defence minister said the latest raid took place on Sunday and was the third attack on Chadian soil by the horse-riding militia from Sudan’s western Darfur region in less than a week, despite a ceasefire agreement signed last month.
He said Chadian troops had clashed at least twice with the Janjaweed militia over the past few days and killed 60 of their fighters last Wednesday.
He also said Sudanese combat helicopters had flown over Chadian territory, where an estimated 100,000 Sudanese refugees have sought shelter, for about two hours on Friday.
“The Sudanese government must respect the accord and rein in the Janjaweed,” Emmanuel Nadingar told Reuters. “We consider this an aggression against our people and that gives us the right to protect our territory and our people,” he said.
In Khartoum, Sudan’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Najeeb al-Kheir Abdul Wahab, told reporters in response to a question:
“There are at present Sudanese-Chadian consultations aimed at overcoming the current circumstances in Darfur in order to reach a resolution without the military escalation there impacting negatively on the environment in N’djamena.”
The minister was refering to the peace talks taking place in the Chadian capital.
Chad had brokered a truce between Khartoum and two rebel groups to enable urgent food and medical supplies to reach hundreds of thousands of people forced from their homes by more than a year of violence in the impoverished Darfur region.
But fighting resumed last week, exacerbating a humanitarian and refugee crisis that has sparked international concern.
U.N. and human rights groups have accused the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militia of ethnic cleansing in Darfur and massive human rights violations which they say may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The African Union has sent a mission to the region, where two rebel groups took up arms in February last year demanding a fairer share of power and resources, to assess conditions for the deployment of ceasefire monitors.
The rebels accuse the Sudanese government of neglecting arid Darfur and arming Arab militia to drive black Africans out of their villages, killing, looting and raping along the way.
Khartoum, which denies the accusations that its forces took part in massacres and summary executions, has branded the militia outlaws and says they are beyond its control.
Under the 45-day, renewable truce agreement signed in Chad’s capital N’djamena, the warring factions were meant to reconvene soon to discuss a global peace deal for Darfur but the latest violence has cast a shadow on any future talks.
“The latest events have put into question all the efforts that the president of the republic, the government and our country are making to restore peace at the border and in Sudan,” Nadingar said.