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African Regional News Updates |
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13 May 2009 N'Djamena - Chad wants the United
Nations, not the African Union (AU), to try to resolve
its crisis with neighbouring Sudan, President Idriss
Deby said on Wednesday.
Deby told a rally of several thousand supporters in
the capital that Chad had lost confidence in the AU,
which it has blamed for failing to deal with the Sudan
issue.
The two oil-producing nations have long traded
accusations of supporting each other's rebels, who
criss-cross their shared lawless border area,
launching sporadic raids.
The latest in a series of deals intended to put an end
to the crisis was signed last week, only for
government forces on both sides of the border to clash
with rebels soon after. The heaviest fighting took
place in Chad, where the army said 225 rebels and 22
soldiers were killed during a rebel advance.
"With regard to the AU, Chad withdraws its confidence,
entrusting instead only the UN with the job of
resolving the crisis between Chad and Sudan," Deby
said at a rally in N'Djamena on Wednesday.
In March, the UN took over command of a European
protection force that has been operating in eastern
Chad. The force is meant to protect civilians and aid
workers but it has not intervened in any of the
fighting.
Chad has threatened in the past to cut ties with the
AU and Sudan. It accuses its neighbour of backing
Chadian rebels and has chided the AU for failing to
resolve the crisis.
Deby said that his country would not take part in any
further meetings on Sudan, without giving further
details.
Instead, he said, Chad would collaborate with the
International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued
an arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar Hassan
al-Bashir, who is accused of war crimes committed in
Sudan's Darfur region.
Bashir denies the charges over Darfur, where a six
year conflict has killed 300 000 people and spilled
over to fuel the simmering conflict in Chad. - Reuters |
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