UN scales back Darfur presence as Sudan-Chad border tension rises

Friday January 6, 7:04 AM
UN scales back Darfur presence as Sudan-Chad border tension rises
The United Nations said it has scaled back its presence in parts of Sudan's restive Darfur region bordering Chad because of escalating tension fueled by a troop buildup along the frontier.
The UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) decided to reduce its presence and restrict UN access in parts of west Darfur "due to the increasing instability in the affected areas," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Dujarric cited specifically "a buildup of forces on either side of the Sudan-Chad border with increased potential for armed conflict."
But he told reporters here that the move by the 5,783-strong UNMIS did not signal an overall evacuation from the area.
"Essential life-saving humanitarian services delivered by the UN will continue," he said.
"The mission will monitor the situation and carry out a fresh security assessment of the affected areas in the next two to three weeks," Dujarric added.
UNMIS chief spokesman George Somerwill meanwhile told AFP from Khartoum that about 100 personnel were in the affected areas before the staff cut took effect over the last two to three months. But he would not say how many people had been withdrawn.
"It's not a big reduction," he said, adding that those left behind were humanitarian workers tasked only with responding "to the life-threatening needs of people in the area."
"There is a heavy buildup of troops on both sides of the border. It has been quite bad in the last three weeks," Somerwill noted. "I think there is some cause for concern."
Dujarric said the escalating tension along the Sudan-Chad border would be discussed when Chad Foreign Minister Ahmad Allam-mi attends a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan next week in New York.
The Chadian government declared a "state of war" with Sudan last month following a rebel attack on the border town of Adre, and has called for the African Union and international community to head off further escalation of the conflict.
Chadian President Idriss Deby has repeatedly accused the Khartoum regime of supporting Chadian rebels in eastern Chad, on the border with Darfur, which has been in the throes of a civil war for three years.
Several new rebel groups have sprung up recently on the Chad side of the border, which houses more than 200,000 refugees who fled Darfur.
On Wednesday, Deby accused Sudan of "exporting" the Darfur crisis to his country, as Central African leaders met at a crisis summit in Ndjamena over the escalating tensions.
"The Khartoum regime is secretively going ahead with the recruitment of mercenaries and other elements to put into action its Machiavellian plan -- the destabilization of Chad," Deby said in opening remarks to the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) mini-summit.
Presidents and senior officials of the six CEMAC member states -- Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon -- gave qualified support to Chad in the dispute, and condemned any attempt to destabilize the country.
The CEMAC leaders also hailed "the efforts of Chad in the search for peace" in Darfur.
The Darfur conflict, which has claimed as many as 300,000 lives and left more than two million displaced, broke out in early 2003 when rebel groups began fighting what they say is the political and economic marginalization of the region's black African tribes by the Arab-led regime in Khartoum.
UN chief Kofi Annan has repeatedly urged the Khartoum government and Darfur rebels to reach a political settlement in the Abuja peace talks in Nigeria. But the talks have made little progress so far.