Chad announced plans on Friday to send troops to help its southern neighbour Central African Republic and confront what it said was a widening regional war waged by Sudan from its violent Darfur region.
The announcement signalled an escalation of the Darfur conflict, which has increasingly been spilling an explosive mixture of refugees, rebels, militia and bandit raiders over Sudan’s western borders into Chad and the Central African Republic.
It came at a time when the United Nations and the African Union were pressing Sudan’s government to accept a UN-led peacekeeping force in the Darfur region to halt three years of violence that have already killed tens of thousands.
In a speech carried on the government website, Chadian Prime Minister Pascal Yoadimnadji called for a ”general mobilisation” in Chad to counter what he called Sudanese military attacks on the east, where recent violence has killed more than 300 people.
Yoadimnadji told Chad’s National Assembly that rebels he described as ”mercenaries in the pay of Sudan” had also occupied several towns in north-east Central African Republic and were advancing west and south. Bangui had appealed for help.
He said Chad’s government proposed sending troops — he did not say how many or when — to help Central African Republic under a regional defence pact.
”A popular saying goes that if your neighbour’s house is on fire, you go to help him, or you risk the fire spreading to your house,” Yoadimnadji said. The full text of his speech made on Thursday was carried by the website on Friday.
In Brussels, Central African Republic President Francois Bozize asked for European Union help to press the UN to provide protective forces to block cross-border attacks.
Sudan’s government has repeatedly denied accusations it is backing rebels bent on destabilising its western neighbours.
Sudan’s Foreign Minister Lam Akol was non-committal about the Chadian troops for Central African Republic. ”It is their business. If they want to, then it’s an internal issue between them and the Central African Republic,” he told Reuters.
He said the accusations against Khartoum were ”not new”.
Yoadimnadji said Khartoum was ”exporting the Darfur conflict”.
”We are witnessing a generalised war imposed by the Sudanese government,” he said. ”This is why we are calling for a general mobilisation of the Chadian people.”
‘Horrendous violence’
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Thursday that Sudan had accepted the principle of UN troops being deployed in Darfur after months of resistance to the idea.
But there are still significant disagreements over the terms and size of the force, which would beef up a struggling 7 000-strong African Union contingent already on the ground.
Aid agencies have been appealing for months for the deployment of a robust international peacekeeping force that can halt the war in Darfur and secure the tri-border area to stop one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Chad imposed a state of emergency in its capital and large parts of the country this week after a wave of eastern communal violence between Arab and non-Arab Chadians, which Yoadimnadji said had killed more than 300 people and razed whole villages.
Chadian victims say the gun-toting raiders on horseback are Arabs who attack non-Arabs. This is the same pattern of violence as in Darfur where Sudan government-backed Arab Janjaweed militias have terrorised civilians in a campaign against non-Arab rebels.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour on Friday called the violence in Chad ”horrendous”.
”Action must be taken immediately to stop a full-blown human rights crisis in south-eastern Chad,” she said in statement. — Reuters