No country ever exists in isolation from its neighbors. Many countries in fact find themselves very intricately bound to them. Chad is one of these. It shares borders with six states, the majority of which have been riven by tensions affecting Chad’s own affairs, pitifully poor and undeveloped as it has been until now.
That the Darfur conflict has overflowed into Chad is not surprising. Chad backed the Darfur rebels. There is strong evidence that Sudan is now repaying this by supporting Chadian rebels against President Idriss Deby. The position of France, the former colonial power, which still maintains a 1,500 strong garrison at a base outside N’djamena, the Chadian capital, may be crucial to any resolution of the present rebellion.
The irony is that Deby once enjoyed warm links with Khartoum which approved his 1990 overthrow of Hissene Habre. The Chadian president has nonetheless since pursued an erratic course in which he has made few friends and far too many enemies — internally among members of his own minority Zagawa clan and externally among his neighbors as well as with key international partners. Most important is Chad’s oil. The World Bank helped fund a 620-mile pipeline from Chad’s oil field to the Cameroon coast on condition that the oil income be used for the direct benefit of the country’s largely impoverished population of ten million. Though recoverable reserves are estimated at a relatively modest 1 billion barrels, the income from these has the power to do immense economic good. Deby has since gone back on the deal he made with the result that the World Bank has persuaded the Exxon-led consortium developing Chad’s oil to stop the flow of funds to N’djamena. In response, Deby has threatened to cut off the flow of oil. It is a dangerous maneuver. The French have probably not forgiven the Chadian leader for not giving the French oil company, Elf, the leading role in the oil project. At the same time, Deby’s position is extremely weak.
Khartoum would of course be pleased to see the ouster of its former ally because it would undermine the position of the Darfur rebels. Sudan’s new unity government, however, which includes the former southern rebels, would do well to also take a statesmanlike view of the unity of its Darfur province. China and Russia have refused to back US calls for UN intervention to stop the lawless behavior of the Janjaweed militias and the inaction or active connivance of government military and police against Darfur refugees. Sudan is therefore in a strong political position.
However, failure to act to bring order and justice to this strife-torn province will further damage the country’s international reputation. Restoring order to the massive region is an immense task, as the African Union forces have found to their frustration. But in the final analysis, this is about Sudan’s sovereignty. If Chad’s leader falls, it will be a victory for Khartoum. The opportunity thus provided must be exploited with magnanimity and fairness to all Sudanese citizens living in Darfur.
