CHAD: Govt denies involvement in Khartoum attack

Chad’s government has denied allegations made by neighbouring Sudan that it backed rebels who raided the Sudanese capital Khartoum on 10 May.

“The government denies all involvement in this adventure that it condemns without reservation,” Chadian government spokesperson Mahamat Hissene said in a statement released in N’djamena on 11 May.

“The government of Chad is surprised at this escalation at a time when we are preparing for a meeting in Tripoli of the delegations of the contact group for the Dakar Peace Accord concerned with security in the region,” the statement added, referring to a mediation between Chad and Sudan started in March.

Sudan cut relations with Chad on Saturday following an attack on Khartoum by rebels allied with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) from Sudan’s Darfur region, the first time in the five-year conflict in Darfur that fighters have reached the heavily-defended capital.

Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir accused Chad of backing JEM in an address televised on Saturday evening. “We have no choice but to sever relations,” he reportedly said. Other news reports from Khartoum said the Chadian embassy was entered by Sudanese security officials.

Chad and Sudan have repeatedly accused each other of backing rebel groups opposed to the other. Most recently in March Chad accused Sudan of backing rebels which launched an assault on N’djamena. Sudan denied any involvement.

Security and political analysts believe Chad’s relationship with the JEM was forged in 2005 when Chadian President Idriss Deby switched his support from forces allied with the Sudanese government in Khartoum to anti-Sudanese forces.

Although he perceived the JEM rebels in Sudan as a threat to his power, JEM fighters are drawn from his own Zaghawa ethnic group and analysts believe Deby came under intense pressure from the Chadian army and his close supporters to back them.

When Chad’s capital came under attack in March this year, the national army fought off a first wave of attackers but called on JEM to help it defend its border against a second column of attackers crossing over from Sudan, according to several think tanks and analysts.