Following clashes between opposing military factions in the adjacent nation of Sudan, the government of Chad declared on Saturday that it was sealing its border with that country.
Armed conflict between two military leaders resulted in airstrikes by the Sudanese army against the paramilitary force’s bases.
“Faced with this troubling situation, Chad, while securing its borders, has decided to close the frontier with Sudan until further notice,” government spokesman Aziz Mahamat Saleh said in a statement.
More than 1,000 kilometres of Chad’s border with Sudan border Darfur, which has long been the scene of tribal conflict, frequently stoked by conflicts over land and water.
A member of the Chadian government told AFP under the condition of anonymity that “the fighting is not only in Khartoum” and that there is “a risk of spillover and infiltrations.”
The proposed integration of Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) into the regular army has caused conflict between Sudan’s military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy.
Integration was a crucial component of negotiations to reach an agreement that would restore civilian governance to one of the world’s poorest nations and put an end to the political and economic crisis started by their coup in 2021.
Three civilians have been killed in the fighting, and both the army and the paramilitary force are claiming control of strategic positions as calls for an urgent truce grow from foreign partners.
