Chad and the Central African Republic: Darfur's Violent Arms

For the last three years, the genocide occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan has been largely contained within Sudan’s borders. However, in the weeks leading to the close of 2006, the violence is spilling into new regions, and as we begin a new year, both Chad and the Central African Republic are experiencing the grave repercussions of the conflict.

Eastern Chad and the northern region of the Central African Republic (CAR) are now entangled in a web of Rebel groups, government forces, armed militias, and civilians, and the violence appears to be escalating. In Eastern Chad, hundreds of aid workers have been evacuated because of increased hostility between military forces and anti-government groups. Arab militiamen, otherwise known as the Janjaweed, have ventured further into Chad, displacing nearly 100,000 Chadians. Additionally, atrocities committed in the CAR have forced tens of thousands of people from the CAR to take refuge by crossing into Chad seeking protection.

60,000 Darfurians have fled their homes in this month alone, bringing estimates of displacement twell above 2 million people. Leaders in Khartoum deny responsibility both for the internal conflict and the newly burgeoning conflicts with their neighboring countries.

Both Chad and Sudan blame each other for supporting rebel groups. Human rights groups suggest that now the regional governments are using these insurgencies to carry out “a proxy war against each other,” as the director of Human Rights Watch’s Africa division stated in an article for the Christian Science Monitor in December.

As of December first, over 500 aid workers have been relocated from Chad’s eastern cities, some of which serve as networking locations for relief agencies in the region. The consensus of the aid community is that the refugees’ situation has become particularly perilous with the withdrawal of a solid representation of aid workers.

In particular, villages East of Goz Beida, a town 100 miles from the Sudan-Chad border, have been assaulted repeatedly by the Sudanese Janjaweed, sometimes joined by Chadian Arabs. Villagers flee from one village to the next, making make shift camps in rough terrain with little food and sometimes no access to water. There are continued reports of the use of rape as a method of warfare, and men who are forced to leave their camps bring with them weapons for defense. Collecting food or firewood has become a perilous endeavor for Chadians living near the Sudan border.

In a December 29th article in the Economist, it is reported that over 220,000 people in the Central African Republic have been displaced internally or are now refugees seeking protection in Chad, whose internal situation is also deteriorating. The Economist article states that “The Central African Republic is now in a profound state of crisis”.

The Central African Republic has control over its capital city, but there are three armed conflicts occurring throughout the country, where the surrounding areas are controlled by assorted rebel groups, bandits, and warlords, all entangled in the conflict generated from the conflict spreading out from Sudan. Four towns were captured by rebel groups stemming from the Darfur conflict in early December. The CAR requested military support from France and Chad in order to quell the uprisings. France responded with a small aerial attack which allowed the CAR to recover control of the towns at least temporarily.


France is currently seeking international assistance through the implementation of UN security council resolution 1706, which includes a provision establishing a UN force to secure the border between Darfur and the CAR. The International community’s lack of interest or awareness of the situation in the CAR has delayed any agreement about who will finance the effort, which France is currently bearing at an annual cost of 7.9 million US Dollars. France’s mandate is due to expire in June 2007, and it has been essential in recovering the towns previously lost to rebel groups.

The lack of interest in the CAR could result in the country losing centralized control in the coming year, as armed groups continue to import weapons and engage in armed conflict throughout all regions of the country beyond the capital. This would have devastating effects on the entire population, displacing hundreds of thousands and resulting in violence and further escalation of the inter-militia conflicts emanating from Darfur.

-Alexa Woodward is a first year law student at the City University of New York School of Law.