ANOTHER ROUND of fighting between rebel forces and government troops is building up in eastern Chad, where Irish troops are serving with the European Union's EUfor mission to protect refugees and NGOs from neighbouring Sudan. The issues involved vividly illustrate the difficulties and risks facing this operation in one of Africa's most unstable regions.
Conflicts in the two states are closely intermingled, as was made clear when Chad's president Idriss Déby accused Sudanese troops of crossing the border yesterday to attack the town of Ade. Earlier this week on national radio he accused EUfor of not preventing rebel attacks on refugees and failing to stop them attacking humanitarian personnel, which he had expected them to do. From another direction UNHCR has suspended its relief programme and criticised the Irish troops in EUfor for not protecting the UNHCR operation in another town, Goz Beida, where their offices were looted and equipment destroyed.
For their part Irish troops have explained that they came under fire at the weekend when observing the rebel force's advance on Goz Beida, and that they subsequently negotiated a peaceful withdrawal from that engagement. Rebel spokesmen say they will respect the EUfor role so long as it remains neutral between them and the Chadian army. These clashes are widely believed to herald another attempted attack on Chad's capital N'Djamena before the forthcoming rainy season, similar to one mounted last February. On that occasion French troops serving alongside the Chadian army intervened on its behalf.
That episode highlights the sensitivities surrounding EUfor, in which French troops predominate, alongside those from several other EU states including Ireland. The norm of strict neutrality between contending Chad forces is necessary to differentiate EUfor from any specifically French interests in upholding the Déby regime. It appears that conflicting interpretations of how to uphold that norm best explain the standoff between UNHCR, Mr Déby and EUfor over recent days. Had the Irish troops got directly involved in protecting the humanitarian staff in Goz Beida they believed they would be intervening in an internal conflict beyond their mandate. But this is precisely what UNHCR expected them to do.
It is essential that Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea and chief of staff Lieut Gen Dermot Earley, currently in Chad, should clarify EUfor's precise role and mandate.