Less than a week after Chad and Sudan inked a formal agreement to set aside their differences this past May, the Sudanese government gave Chadian rebels the green light to launch a cross-border attack from their rear bases inside Darfur. Having repelled Sudan-backed rebel offensives that reached the capital N’Djamena in 2006 and 2008, the Chadian military was well prepared. Chadian forces routed the rebels near the border, chased them back into Sudan, and launched cross-border airstrikes against those who tried to regroup.

 

This latest bloody bout of proxy conflict should not have surprised anyone. Multiple attempts to mediate an agreement between the two capitals have failed to address the primary source of the crisis: the internal rot at the center of each country.[2] Twenty years after coming to power in a coup d’état in Sudan, the National Congress Party in Khartoum shows no signs of loosening its grip on power. Across the border in N’Djamena, Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno pays lip service to political reforms and cracks down violently on legitimate political opposition.  

 

While international efforts to address Sudan’s internal crisis are ongoing, parallel efforts in Chad are virtually nonexistent. A comprehensive approach to peace in the region by definition must deal aggressively with the persistent internal turmoil in Chad, where the precedent of armed rebellion as the sole vehicle for political opposition has been established through decades of brutal governance and violent regime change. Ad hoc efforts by the European Union and others to drive a process of political reform have not made effective use of significant available leverage. The United States has largely steered clear of Chad’s internal crisis, opting to focus on counterterrorism cooperation and humanitarian assistance. But the inadequacies of crisis management in Chad will continue to negatively impact the situation in Sudan, where the United States has invested heavily in peace. For example, short-term humanitarian efforts absent a political process to end the Chadian crisis can institutionalize long-term displacement and can inadvertently support armed groups. In eastern Chad, Sudanese rebels systematically divert food aid from refugee camps in support of the war effort.[3]

 

It’s time to get serious about Chad, and the Obama administration is in a unique position to forge partnerships with key actors—particularly France and Libya—to coordinate pressure on President Déby to enact genuine political reforms, including overhauling its justice and security sectors and decentralization of power from elites in N’Djamena to Chad’s politically marginalized periphery. Indeed, diplomacy will continue to bear rotten fruit until the international community adopts a regional approach that includes credible efforts to address the internal crises in Sudan and Chad. This requires strategic vision and leadership, which the United States can provide.

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A BBC reporter in Chad has seen armed Sudanese rebels openly driving through Oure Cassoni camp for Darfur refugees.

The Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) fighters were armed with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s.

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With World Refugee Day being last Saturday, it’s a perfect time to recognize what American students are doing to address the genocide in Darfur.

The best example is the Darfur Sister Schools program, whose mission is to build relationships between American schools and students in Darfur refugee camps. Those refugees are the victims of the Sudanese government’s plot to back Arab militias bent on eliminating the black African population in Sudan. Hundreds of thousands have been killed and thousands more are displaced.

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On June 20, the United States will join the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the international community in marking World Refugee Day. Secretary Clinton was scheduled to speak at a ceremony at National Geographic headquarters on June 18 to salute the fortitude of the world’s refugees and internally displaced persons. Unfortunately, she was unable to attend the event because of an injury. This is an abridged version of her prepared remarks.

To hear more of Secretary Clintons remarks on World Refugee Day click here.

The United States has begun accepting the first group of 1,800 refugees it plans to resettle annually from communities and overburdened refugee camps in Chad.
  
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which is coordinating the selection process and the transfer, says that most of the victims Chad has been housing are blameless civilians, who have been caught up and displaced by heavy fighting in Sudan’s Darfur, the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the Central African Republic (CAR).

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Angelina Jolie was on a stage Thursday but wasn't performing. Instead, she paid tribute to the millions of uprooted people across the globe made homeless by war.

A U.N. goodwill ambassador, Jolie was in Washington to observe World Refugee Day, an annual event that falls on Saturday this year. The poignant ceremony was sponsored by the United Nations refugee agency.

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(RFE/RL) -- Antonio Guterres, the UN's high commissioner for refugees, is urging the international community not to slacken aid donations for refugees and internally displaced people amid the current global economic crisis.

Guterres made the plea ahead of World Refugee Day on June 20 -- a day aimed at raising global awareness of the plight of people who have been forced from their homes by war or political persecution.

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The Government of Chad today released to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) 84 child soldiers who had been captured with rebel units last month, the agency announced.

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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced concern over the deterioration in relations between Chad and Sudan, further destabilizing the already volatile Darfur region.

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United Nations -- A report by the United Nations that the Sudanese Air Force bombed northeastern Chad near a refugee camp has sparked strong condemnation from the Save Darfur Coalition (SDC) following military and paramilitary attacks over the past week.

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