New clashes in east, government blames Sudan

Fierce fighting in eastern Chad between army troops and rebels allegedly backed by neighbouring Sudan has left dozens dead including the army chief, General Abakar Youssouf Mahamat Itno, Chadian officials told IRIN on Friday. The government blamed Sudan for Thursday’s clashes, saying armed groups and Sudanese Janjawid militia attacked Chadian troops near the border with the troubled Darfur region, displacing thousands of civilians. Aid workers in the region are concerned that violence could spread, severely hampering humanitarian aid for over a quarter-million Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians. Foreign Minister Ahmad Allam-mi told IRIN by telephone that the Janjawid and what he called “Chadian mercenaries” had attacked around the towns of Ade and Moudeina. On Friday the minister of territorial administration Mahamat Ali Abdallah Nassour told reporters in the capital N’djamena that government troops had “vigorously repelled” the attack. He said the government "deplored" the death of the army commander, who was President Idriss Deby's nephew. The government said around 10 Chadian soldiers had been killed in the clashes and 50 hurt, with “around 100 dead on their side,” Allam-mi said. “They fled towards Sudan; we don’t know how many were injured.” Meanwhile a press release posted on the Internet by a rebel group calling itself United Front for Democratic Change said 400 government soldiers died, were taken prisoner, or defected. Urging world leaders to demand Khartoum exercise restraint in the region, foreign minister Allam-mi said: “We call on the international community, the head of the African Union Denis Sassou Nguesso and of the African Union Commission Alpha Oumar Konare and [Libyan leader] Muammar Gaddafi to push for Sudan to respect its commitments.” “We firmly denounce this violation of the accord signed between Chad and Sudan in Libya on 8 February 2006,” which called on Sudan to control the Janjawid as well as Chadian insurgents, he said. This is the second time this month the Chad government has publicly accused Sudan of breaking the pact by backing cross-border incursions. Deby and Sudan's Umar al-Bashir met in Libya in early February, agreeing to several measures to restore peace, including a vow not to back rebel activities within their territories. An analyst says Thursday’s incident indicates deep problems within the Chadian army, which has seen waves of defections of soldiers and senior officers since October. “The fact that the chief of staff of the land army was so exposed suggests that the command structures must be significantly deteriorated already,” said Chris Melville, Africa expert with the London-based research group Global Insight. Unrest forces Chadians to flee, threatens aid efforts Officials said the latest clashes forced some 4,000 Chadians from their homes, adding to 30,000 civilians the government says have been displaced by repeated incursions in eastern Chad. “The people [in this region] have always been the victims of these Chadian mercenaries and Sudanese militia,” Allam-mi told IRIN. Eastern Chad has repeatedly been hit by violence linked to the war in the Darfur region over the border but in recent months has also become home to a Chadian rebel movement. Humanitarian sources say it is difficult to estimate how many Chadians have been dislodged by recent violence in the region - which already hosts some 207,000 Sudanese refugees - but one aid worker in the area said at least 25,000 Chadians have fled their homes.

Over 200,000 Sudanese refugees live in eastern Chad

Insecurity recently forced a team of aid workers to pull out of Ade, said Nicolai Panke, deputy chief of delegation for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Chad. “There was a team in Ade helping to build and repair wells; we pulled them out on Thursday morning as a precaution,” he said, explaining that no aid workers were threatened in any way but that an increase in military presence in the area in recent days sparked concerns. A worker with the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday that recent clashes had not blocked aid efforts but that a spread of violence farther into Chad would be a concern. “No UN or humanitarian agency has thus far had to move staff away from their areas of operations because the conflict has remained sufficiently far away until now,” UNHCR public information officer Matthew Conway in Abeche in eastern Chad told IRIN. “However, should this situation change, and the conflict move westward, that would of course be cause for increased concern on the part of UN and partner humanitarian agencies for the welfare of Sudanese refugees, Chadian [displaced], and the hundreds of humanitarian staff working to assist them.”