Dafur Update: Sudan’s Relations with Neighboring Countries
Hello African Union!
I found this article on CNN.com (see below), which talks about how the relationship between the government of Chad and the Sudanese government has changed since Darfur refugees have fled to Chad. CNN reports that the Prime Minister of Chad is calling on the international community to expell the refugees in order to curb violence in the East region of the country.
This article and the issue of refugees fleeing to Chad brings up some important questions to be considered when examining the Darfur crisis: To what extent is the crisis a domestic problem and to what extent is the crisis an international problem? Does the Sudanese government have the right to claim sovreignty in dealing with the crisis or is international intervention appropriate?
These are just a few things to consider when you’re reading the article. Also, it might be interesting to read more about refugees in Chad, so you may want to check out more on CNN.com and other sites.
-Vice Chair Beth Dukes
[article retrieved on 2-12-2008 from http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/02/11/chad.refugees.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch]
N’DJAMENA, Chad (AP) – — Chad’s prime minister on Monday blamed the influx of some 300,000 refugees from the neighboring Darfur region for his country’s worsening tensions with Sudan and he demanded the international community move them out.
Refugee camps in eastern Chad house about 300,000 people who fled vioelnce in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Prime Minister Nouradin Koumakoye warned that if the refugees are not transferred elsewhere, Chad’s government would expel them on its own.
Koumakoye repeated charges that Sudan is fomenting violence here because Darfur refugees are sheltering in eastern Chad. Chadian rebels often clash with government forces in the east and attacked the capital earlier this month before being driven off, but Sudan denies any involvement.
“We are being attacked by Sudan because of these refugees,” Koumakoye told reporters in N’Djamena, the capital.
“We demand that the international community transfer the population (of Sudanese refugees) from Chad to Sudan to free us,” he said. “We want the international community to look for another country so that the Sudanese can leave. If they cannot do it, we are going to do it.”
Chad has threatened previously to expel the Darfur refugees, who have fled five years of fighting between the region’s ethnic African rebel groups and Sudan’s Arab-dominated government.
After attacks by Chadian rebels in April 2006, President Idriss Deby said he would force them back into Sudan if the international community did not take action to prevent Sudan from destabilizing his country. Deby backed down a few days later under intense international pressure.
Over the weekend, about 12,000 more Darfur people fled across the border into eastern Chad after air strikes by the Sudanese military on several towns.
An estimated 280,000 Sudanese already were living in camps in eastern Chad, and the United Nations says some 140,000 Chadians in that area also have been displaced by violence linked to the Darfur conflict.
Chad previously accused Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir of backing the rebel attack on N’Djamena in a bid to prevent deployment of a European Union peacekeeping force in the border region.
The 3,700-strong force is intended to protect refugees and humanitarian workers along Sudan’s borders with Chad and the Central African Republic, but a planned December deployment was delayed by supply problems. The recent fighting in Chad’s capital further delayed the force.
In an interview late Sunday with The Associated Press, the commander in Chad of the EU force, Brig. Gen. Jean-Philippe Ganascia, said he hoped its initial units would arrive by the end of February and the entire force within three months.
Ganascia also said that had the EU peacekeepers been in place, they would not have intervened in Chad’s internal conflict except to defend civilians.
Chadian rebels, who accuse Deby of corruption and embezzling millions in oil revenue, attacked the capital February 2-3, advancing from their strongholds in the east in trucks mounted with machine guns.
The rebels were repelled after bloody battles, but French military officers reported fighting between rebels and government troops in central Chad as recently as Friday.
Nonetheless, the capital’s airport was being reopened, a sign the government believes normalcy is returning. Security officials at the airport said the first commercial passenger flight was expected Tuesday, an Air France plane
March 4th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
i thought this article was an interesting since it contrasts what’s going on between chad and the government of sudan vs ethiopia and sudan. if a bilateral relationship like that was set up with chad, it probably would have an easier time coping with the refugees
March 9th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Since Sudan is a sovereign nation of the African Union, their sovereignty must be respected. As a nation, Sudan is not taking action against another sovereign nation or the peoples of another sovereign nation and thus decisions made by outside foreign bodies (including the UN and the AU) should respect Sudan’s sovereignty.
It is hard to classify the crisis in Darfur as either a strictly domestic or international problem. The conflict stemmed from primarily domestic issues pertaining to international relations. Because this issue is an internal conflict between certain groups within Sudan and the Sudanese government, it is our contention that this issue is one that must maintain its domestic importance within Sudan.
However, certain atrocities have been committed in the Darfur region of Sudan that are considered crimes against humanity by the United Nations and the African Union. These crimes directly justify intervention by the African Union in order to secure these universal rights to innocent civilians of the region. Whomever it is that are committing these crimes, it is the Sudanese government’s responsibility to allow the African Union (and now the UN) peacekeeping forces to stop the atrocities throughout the region and assist humanitarian aid. Currently, only 20% of the Darfur region is accessible to peacekeeping forces and humanitarian aid. We must find a way to bring assistance to these reasons as soon as possible. Some locations cannot be reached due to transportation limitations. Some nations, including Algeria, have been supplying, although in small numbers, planes that can bring food, fresh water, and medical supplies. To help those regions where geography, and not political issues, is the predominant problem, funds need to be allocated to purchasing an ample number of air transport vehicles. That is, when all the funds arrive.
The Sudanese government, in comparison to other previous instances of internal severance in Africa, has had very little time to respond to the situation at hand. Omar Al-Bashir and the Sudanese government have declared that they are open to peace talks with rebel groups; however, these negotiations have made little progress. This lack of progress is due to disunity among the rebel groups. These groups cannot come to definitive terms amongst each other, and therefore a definitive agreement with the Sudanese government is not possible.