Tragedy 'unfolding in Chad, CAR'
2006-12-14 15:00
Nairobi - The African Union on Thursday warned of a "tragedy unfolding" in Chad and Central African Republic, where governments had been fighting with rebel groups seeking to seize power.
AU Commission chairperson Alpha Omar Konare told African leaders that there was need to discourage attempts by insurgents to seize power with the use of force.
Konare said: "In Central African Republican and Chad, with a heavy heart, we are just spectators of a tragedy unfolding there." He told the second International Conference on the Great Lakes Region in Nairobi.
He added: "We need to implement our principles so we do not encourage the assumption of power by force." AU had been advocating the rejection of governments that came to power by force instead of through democratic elections.
Army re-takes Ouadda Djalle
In Chad, government troops had taken the offensive against movements fighting President Idriss Deby Itno, but the rebels on Wednesday denied N'Djamena's claim that they had been "totally annihilated".
While in the CAR, a loose coalition of rebels had been fighting since October to topple current president general Francois Bozize.
Last week, with military support from France, the army retook Ouadda Djalle, the last town that fell into rebels' hands, but there were still fears of more insurgency.
Chad and the CAR had jointly accused Sudan of backing rebel forces in their countries, but Khartoum had denied the accusations and instead accused the two nations of supporting rebels in Sudan's western region of Darfur.
In Darfur, at least 200 000 people had been killed and 2.5 million displaced by nearly four years of fighting between ethnic African rebels and militia allied to the Arab-led government in Khartoum.
Last month, the United Nations security council expressed "serious concern" about the growing instability along the border areas of the three African countries.
Aid groups had warned of dire humanitarian situation in the region if the fighting escalated.