Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Khartoum (Agenzia Fides) - While international observers and media focus attention on the crisis in Kenya, concerning developments are registered in the situation in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.
On 9 January the US asked the United Nations Organisation to apply sanctions to Sudan following the “unacceptable attack” on 7 January by Sudanese forces on a joint mission of UN and AU peacekeepers UNAMID in Darfur, which officially began on 1 January. A local UNAMID truck driver employed was injured in the attack.
Khartoum denied that its troops were involved and accused the rebels of the Justice and Equality Movement, which, the Sudanese ambassador told the UN, “are backed by the government of Chad”.
This statement revealed growing tension between Sudan and Chad which has to deal with various guerrilla groups active in its eastern region bordering on Darfur. The government of N’Djamena says Chadian rebels with bases in Darfur are supported, or at least not hampered, by the Sudanese authorities.
On Sunday 6 January Chad's airforce bombed rebel objectives near El Geneina, main city of western Darfur. This was the second such raid in two weeks. The government of Sudan said the Chadian army crossed the border on 28 December while its air force bombed areas of Darfur.
On January 5 the president of Chad Idriss Deby, threatened to pursue and strike Chadian rebels “inside Sudan”, confirming his accusations of “a plan to destabilise Chad” , fomented by the government of Khartoum.
Between 26 November and 4 December fierce hostilities between the Chadian army and main rebel groups in the east of the country, broke a peace agreement reached on 25 October 2007 in Sirte, in Libya. The deployment of a European peacekeeping mission ( strongly backed by France) in Chad and the Central African Republic) has been so far hampered by political and logistic difficulties. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 10/1/2008 righe 30 parole 381)
