NDJAMENA/NAIROBI, 20 April 2006 — Relations between erstwhile allies Chad and Sudan broke down as Chad pulled out of the stalled African Union-brokered Darfur peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja Sunday. This followed Chad’s severing of diplomatic ties with Khartoum Friday, when Chad accused Sudan of supporting rebels who staged two failed coup attempts in the country in the last month, with the latest attempt being repulsed by government forces last Thursday.
Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno upped his anti-Sudan rhetoric, accusing his counterpart Omar El-Beshir of genocide in Sudan’s conflict-ridden western Darfur region and of being a traitor.
Deby feels particularly betrayed. His offer to mediate in the Abuja peace talks between Darfur rebels and Khartoum was also spurred by his wish to protect Chadian Zarghawi tribesman who live in Darfur as well as good neighborliness.
The relationship has clearly seen better days. In 1990, as a disgruntled military officer, Deby led a rebellion from Sudan’s Darfur region with Khartoum’s support — just like the current rebels — to overthrow the autocratic regime of Hissene Habre.
Habre is currently in exile in Senegal awaiting an AU decision that may see him face trial for crimes against humanity during his rule.
Furious at the United Nations for doing little to censure Khartoum’s “genocide crimes” in Darfur, Deby also threatened to expel some 250,000 Sudanese refugees in UN-run camps in eastern Chad fleeing the three-year-old Darfur conflict by June.
Chad believes that some refugees are being paid to fight alongside United Front for Democratic Change (FUC) rebels to topple Deby’s 15-year-old regime. Although Deby reportedly gave his personal assurances to UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterrez Sunday that no Sudanese refugees would be forcibly expelled, the UNHCR is making contingency plans for where to move the refugees next, a massive and expensive eventuality, just in case Deby changes his mind.
Meanwhile, Sudan insists that Chad’s instability is a domestic problem, denying any part in it. But Khartoum acknowledges that Ndjamena’s decision to cut diplomatic relations is a “crisis, but one that can be solved within the African Union.”
The Organization of the Islamic Conference has urged the two member states to show restraint.
Sudan and Chad are both ruled by northern Muslim Arab elites who have long supported each other in longstanding conflicts with their southern African Christian compatriots.
The increasingly defiant Deby, however, has expanded his net of fury to include the World Bank. He is threatening to cut off his country’s oil exports by the end of April if the bank doesn’t give it $100 million frozen in London bank accounts that he says are owed to Chad.
Alternatively, the US-led oil consortium operating in Chad since oil was discovered there in 2003, was requested to pay royalties due to Ndjamena straight into state coffers. The World Bank froze $124 million in oil royalties to Ndjamena earlier this year following Chad’s refusal to set aside part of its oil revenues to tackle domestic poverty, as agreed with the World Bank.
Reeling from the effects of $70 per-barrel global oil prices as a result of ongoing tensions over Iran’s nuclear power ambitions, the US is expected rush its top Africa official, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer, to Ndjamena for talks.
