France defends troop deployment for Darfur refugees in Chad

KHARTOUM, Aug 8 (AFP) — France’s ambassador to Khartoum said Sunday the deployment of 200 French troops in eastern Chad was on purely humanitarian grounds to protect the refugees from Sudan’s strife-torn province of Darfur.

The operation’s aim was “to rally military resources for humanitarian reasons”, Dominique Reneaux told a press conference, denying the French forces had any military mission.

“It was the UN and the UNHCR (refugee agency) that asked France, which has 1,000 troops in Chad, to carry out this humanitarian task.”

The ambassador said the French troops had been airlifting between 25 to 30 tonnes a day from Ndjamena to Abeche in eastern Chad for the past week for the Darfur refugees.

“France has been exerting its efforts for more than a year to help reach a solution to this humanitarian crisis,” added the ambassador, referring to visits to Sudan by several French envoys.

The diplomat said the French troop deployment had “contributed to the maintenance of security around the Sudanese refugee camps”.

French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie pledged Friday that Paris would support the refugees “with all means necessary”, during a brief visit to a camp near the border with Darfur.

“We must be there as much as necessary and with all means necessary” to help the refugees who are fleeing the fighting in Darfur, Alliot-Marie said.

French President Jacques Chirac at the end of July ordered French troops already stationed in Chad to help with efforts to provide relief to the 1.2 million people driven from their homes by Sudanese troops and Arab militias.

Some 180,000 Sudanese have fled to Chad.