The French in Chad as Rebels Overrun Ndjamena

Sunday nights at the United Nations Security Council aren't known for four-hour blowout negotiating sessions. Violence in central Africa, however, summoned the fair arbiters of 21st century international peace and security to the horseshoed table yesterday. The region faces nightmarish mahem.

France conquered Chad in 1920, relinquished control in 1960, and yesterday French military swept in to evacuate Westerners as rebels overran the capital city of Ndjamena. Reports now are unclear; it seems as if Chadian president Idriss Déby has fought them off, though, according to the Associated Press, in the city "casualties were believed to be high." After taking fire, the US embassy now stands evacuated and abandoned.

Bloodshed in Ndjamena threatens to bring a bloody cauldron of fighting and murder to a boil. Three different Chadian rebel groups have banded together. As recently as 2006, rebels attempted to topple Déby's government in Ndjamena; since, Deby has gone against the country's constitution and taken a third term as president. Now, the banded rebels, which swear allegiances to distinct clans, charge Deby with corruption and stacking his parliament with his own Zagawa clan. (Zagawas make up less than three percent of Chad's population.)
 
Eastern Chad today houses hundreds of thousands of displaced Darfuris on its border, a remote region that has for years been home to varying forms of unrest. A force of more than 20,000 UN peacekeepers had been scheduled to land in Darfur by the end of 2007, but that didn't happen. Officials have since said that deploying a force by the end of 2008 would be a goal, and more importantly, any effort to calm the situation in Chad first depends on the pacification of Darfur. On Friday Reuters reported that Chad wrote to the Council, "Faced with the aggression orchestrated and strongly supported by Sudan, the Chadian government intends to use its legitimate right of defense by all means at its disposal, including pursing the aggressors into Sudanese territory."

In effect, the border between the two countries is entirely imagined. Roads are dirt, crossings are controlled by rebel groups, not state-paid customs and border control officials. That said, the more this border widens, the more a severe conflict could not only spread but also challenge the sovereignty of Ndjamena and Khartoum, and as it all goes down, put into question the postcolonial borders of both nations.

The wildcard is France. In the past, Paris has come to Chad's rescue, in the strange custom of a former kidnapper protecting out of obligation. Nicolas Sarkozy, the newly-married French president, this time instead offered President Déby a ride out of town. The Chadian president refused. French officials have said that Sudan is backing the Chadian rebels.

The Council released a statement this morning support the government in Ndjamena. Interpretations were being made as to what kind of support the statement authorizes, but French military support could soon be on the table.

UPDATE: France appears to have stepped on on Déby's behalf, and violence in the capital has quieted.

Comments

[boutrosbou]

RE: China Abets, Arms Sudanese Regime [J. Peter Pham]
While I limited my observations a few days ago to the deleterious impact of mainland China's support for Sudan's Arab-dominated Islamist regime on the internal situation in the latter country, events this week clearly show that Khartoum's capacity for mischief is not limited by international borders. As the BBC reports, rebels supported by Sudan's rulers seized large parts of N'Djamena, the capital of neighboring Chad, on Saturday and are battling government troops for control of the city. Chad is currently providing shelter for an estimated 200,000 refugees from the Sudanese regime's campaign of violence in the Darfur region and is the staging ground for the international community's $300 million relief efforts for what the United Nations has called the "world's worst humanitarian crisis."

In the short term, the Chadian rebels' assault on the capital, reportedly in vehicles originally shipped to Sudan from China, is an attempt to alter the strategic balance in the region before a French-led European Union peacekeeping force can deploy as scheduled later this month to protect refugees from Darfur and prevent further Sudanese-backed incursions into Central Africa. Over the long term, the imposition of a Sudanese-backed regime in Chad, coupled with the ongoing instability in Kenya, makes it that much more difficult for the South Sudanese to exercise their right of secession in 2011, notwithstanding the modest assistance they receive from the United States, including the new interim general headquarters for the Sudan People's Liberation Army which was dedicated this past week (see Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer's remarks at the ceremony).

[Phoenix Atlantis Entertainment]

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