Chad breaks links with Sudan

Chad broke off diplomatic relations with neighbouring Sudan today, escalating tensions between the two African nations a day after a deadly rebel attack on the capital ended with at least 350 people dead.

Chad’s president blamed Sudan for the bloody three-day assault on N’djamena in which the victims included defending troops, rebels and civilians.

Cabinet minister General Mahamet Ali Abdullah said 271 rebels were captured and dozens of them were paraded through the Place d’Independence today.

President Idriss Deby, who has led Chad since seizing power in a coup in 1990, has repeatedly rejected calls for negotiations with the rebels, insisting they are mercenaries hired by the Sudanese government to overthrow him.

Sudan has denied the accusation, and in turn has accused Chad of supporting rebels in its volatile Darfur region, where Arab militias and rebels have fought for nearly three years.

Deby today ordered Sudan’s diplomats out of Chad, and said he would expel all 200,000 Sudanese refugees living in Chad by June 30 if the United Nations and the African Union did not help stop what he said were Khartoum’s attempts to destabilise his government.

“The international community has been totally deaf and dumb on the situation between Sudan and Chad,” Deby said after an emergency Cabinet meeting. They “need to understand the situation and that enough is enough.”

A Sudanese embassy spokesman in N’djamena said it had not received any official communication on the decision.

”We are waiting for the government to notify us,” he said, identifying himself only as Hamid.

Some 180,000 people have died in Darfur in western Sudan over the past three years, some at the hands of Arab militias, many from disease and hunger.

United Nations officials estimate that 2 million people have been driven from their homes, including 200,000 who have fled to Chad.

The UN Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council both condemned Thursday’s rebel attack on N’djamena. The UN called for both Chad and Sudan to take all necessary steps to prevent any more violence or an escalation of tensions between the two countries.

The United Nations has long warned that the violence in Darfur would destabilise the region, especially Chad.

Over three days this week, the rebels charged 620 miles towards the capital in pick-ups from their bases and came close to capturing the National Assembly building in the centre of N’djamena on Thursday.

Government troops pushed them back using tanks, artillery and attack helicopters.

“After the battle yesterday (Thursday) morning, military and security forces mopped up in the city outskirts, taking out the rebels in their hiding places,” said Gen Abdullah, the government’s territorial management minister, insisting there was no immediate threat of another attack.

He said the army also captured 14 pick-ups used by the rebels, some mounted with anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft guns and missile launchers.

The majority of the prisoners appeared to be under 25 years of age, and many claimed to be Sudanese conscripted into the rebel United Forces for Change. One said he was an adjutant in the Sudanese army, while another was recognised by loyalist troops as a former Chadian soldier.

Some said they had been assured that there would be no fight for N’djamena once they entered the city.

Deby declared victory over the rebels – but it was the second attempt in less than a month to overthrow him. Amid a scramble for power heightened by the discovery of oil, army officers tried last month to stage a coup while Deby was out of the country.

However, a website claiming to represent the rebels said on Thursday that its fighters were on the move to the north and east of N’djamena and were regrouping.

There also was a statement claiming that rebel forces had control of two towns near the Sudanese border, Adre and Am-Timam, but the report could not be independently verified.

Chad, an arid, landlocked country about three times the size of France, has been violent for most of its history, including more than 30 years of civil war since gaining independence from France in 1960 and various small-scale insurgencies since 1998.

“The situation in Chad remains very worrying and volatile,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said on Thursday.

The 1,500 French citizens living in Chad were advised to be cautious and the French school there was closed, he said.

France – which has an agreement with Chad over entering into combat – has about 1,400 troops in Chad to protect the French, and France’s Defence Ministry said it sent fighter jets on reconnaissance missions over Chad to assess any threats.