Chad declared a 12-day state of emergency in three northern and eastern regions following ethnic clashes last week during which about 20 people have been killed, a government spokesman said.
It was the second time this year that Chad has imposed a state of emergency in northern and eastern Chad because of ethnic clashes in an area where the army has been fighting rebels since 2005. The region also has been affected by the spillover of violence from Sudan's western Darfur region. The last state of emergency lasted seven months and ended in May.
The new state of emergency was declared on Tuesday, a day after EU foreign ministers gave their final approval for a 3,000-strong peacekeeping force in Chad and the Central African Republic. French and Irish forces were in eastern Chad and the Central African Republic conducting reconnaissance for the force, French and Irish officials said on Tuesday.
The clashes last week in Chad were between two tribes, the Tama, to which former rebel leader and Defense Minister Mahamed Nour belongs, and the Zaghawa, President Idriss Deby's group. The clashes took place over three days in the eastern district of Dar Tama.
The interior minister, Ahmad Mahamat Bashir, told Radio Chad the clashes were sparked by claims members of one tribe stole cattle and other livestock from members of the other tribe.
An emergency Cabinet meeting, "decided to impose a state of emergency of 12 days in the regions of Ouaddai, of Wadi Fira and of Borkou Ennedi Tibesti," said Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor, the government spokesman and communications minister.
The heads of the three regions should do everything necessary to restore public order, Prime Minister Nouradine Delwa Kassire Coumakoye said in a statement read on state-owned Radio Chad.
The fighting in Sudan's Darfur has sent tens of thousands of refugees into Chad and neighboring Central African Republic. In addition, raiders from Sudan have attacked refugees and Chadian villagers in Chad, and Chadian rebels have taken advantage of the instability to use the Chad region bordering Darfur as a staging ground for their own war on Deby's government.
UN officials estimate that around 3 million people have been uprooted by conflicts in the region, including the fighting in Darfur and unrelated rebellions in Chad and Central African Republic. The majority -- some 2.25 million -- are Darfuris displaced within Darfur.
The UN estimates over 400,000 refugees and internally displaced people are living in camps in Chad, most of them coming from Darfur.
Around half of the EU force planned for Darfur's neighbors would be from France, which already has troops in the region supporting the governments of Chad and Central African Republic.
The EU mission will be in addition to a planned 26,000-member joint African Union-UN peacekeeping force which is to deploy in Darfur itself.
More than 200,000 people have died since rebels from Darfur's ethnic African majority took arms against the Arab-dominated central government in 2003, accusing it of neglect and discrimination. The Sudanese government is accused of responding to the uprising by unleashing militias blamed for atrocities against ethnic African villagers, an allegation Khartoum denies.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate
RSS