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THE SPILLOVER IN CHAD

The continuing conflict in Darfur increasingly threatens the stability of Chad. Since early 2004 janjaweed attacks have extended across the border into Chad, in some cases dozens of kilometers inside Chad.

According to Chadian officials, the highest-level Chadian authorities have repeatedly urged the Sudanese government to control the janjaweed, but with little effect. One official told Human Rights Watch:

We’ve met with the Sudanese authorities, we need to have peace. The [janjaweed] militias are supported and armed by the government, there are more than 20,000 militia who have been recruited and armed by the [Sudanese] government to combat the rebellion. On the pretext of insecurity, they take the opportunity to loot the villages—we don’t know if they’re authorized to go loot by the government. We told the Sudanese to send a regular force, we asked them to take the militias and put them somewhere—in Geneina [town] or somewhere. It’s very difficult to negotiate or collaborate with the militia.87

Some of the attacks in Chad are carried out by militia members and bandits grown greedy for more looted camels, cattle, and other spoils of “war.” They raid vulnerable communities of refugees camped along the border. Other attacks are ethnically charged. For instance, militia members specifically target individual unarmed civilians who seek water in the wadis, both Sudanese refugees and Chadians, and reprisal attacks have occurred among Chadian Masaalit and Arab communities.

Attacks on Refugees and Chadians

Initial attacks on the Chadian side by the janjaweed were confined to cattle and camel raids, but in recent months increasing attacks on civilians have occurred just along the border and even several kilometers inside Chad; some attacks appear to have ethnic overtones. Groups of janjaweed have fired upon and killed people who have descended into the dry riverbed to collect water from hand-dug wells. On March 7, 2004, militia crossed over to Chad and stole one hundred head of cattle, killing one refugee and wounding another in two sites along the border, according to one report.88

Many victims are women, as they are the ones who walk long distances for water and firewood. Reportedly a large number of women have been raped in similar circumstances, but Human Rights Watch could not find women willing to talk about such attacks. A thirty-eight-year old Chadian Masaalit woman from Ouendelou village was shot in the stomach in one incident on February 11, 2004:

I went to get water myself because I was worried about my only son going. It was about 10 in the morning. There were many people there getting water. There are many holes along the wadi and at each hole there’s usually a group of men and women. I was at one of the holes when about five men came walking up. They had left their horses further down the wadi, and they were about ten meters away when they shot me in the stomach. They were wearing green khakis and they didn’t say anything, they just started shooting. It was a single shot at me, then they collected their horses and left.89

Incidents like these have prompted the UNHCR to try to relocate the refugees further in from the border, but the operation is a fraught with logistical challenges. In addition, some refugees who settled with kin near the border indicated that they do not want to move away. Others fear the limited water resources in the camps could mean losing the rest of the livestock that provides the only asset for those families remaining from their previous life in Darfur. Corpses of animals dead from lack of food or water already scatter the refugee settlements in several areas of eastern Chad.

Rising Ethnic Tensions in Chad

The conflict in Darfur has also ignited tensions among Chadian ethnic groups that share blood ties with Darfurians, and who previously coexisted in Chad. The problem is particularly acute around Adré and the southeastern border areas, where villages of Chadian Masaalit and Arabs live in close proximity.

Many Chadian Masaalit have close family ties with villages just across the border in Darfur, and have hosted their refugee kin and heard their tales of horror. Tension in Adre town between Masaalit and Arab communities was palpable when Human Rights Watch visited in February 2004.

On February 4, 2004, Chadian Masaalit killed a prominent Arab leader named Mohammed Thorolat and another Arab south of Adre. Apparently the Chadian Masaalit were targeting the leader, whose authority stretched into Sudan, because of abuses by janjaweed against Masaalit. The killing immediately caused considerable concern among Chadian authorities, who quickly intervened. According to a Chadian official, “The administration met with both ethnic groups and the population was told not to follow this up or cross the border. We don’t want what’s happening in Sudan to spill over. We will do everything to control the situation.”90

The authorities arrested the two individuals responsible for the killings. The mediation of the authorities apparently produced an agreement that the Masaalit would pay compensation of one hundred camels for each victim, but soon after the agreement was concluded there was a further spate of cross-border militia attacks on Chadian Masaalit villages, likely in retaliation. At least eight people were killed. Since these attacks the Masaalit have refused to pay the agreed compensation.

The Masaalit community is increasingly apprehensive about the potential for further Arab attacks, and some have tried to obtain arms. Officially, the Chadian government has refused to arm civilians, aware of how quickly this strategy has spun out of control—or been permitted to go out of control—in neighboring Darfur. For this and other reasons, the Chadian government fears the destabilizing impact of the Darfur conflict. Although Chadian military forces have become more active along the border and are conducting cross-border hot pursuit of the janjaweed into Sudan with the Sudanese government’s permission, the tense situation in Chad is growing, not diminishing.




87 Human Rights Watch interview, Chad, February 18, 2004.

88“Cross-border conflict escalates,” Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN), March 16, 2004,

at http://wwww.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/e0f1adb1bfd2b0d985256e590069c777?OpenDocument

89 Human Rights Watch interview, Chad, February 19, 2004.

90 Human Rights Watch interview, Chad, February 18, 2004.


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