Sudan cuts Chad ties after Darfur rebel attack on Khartoum

By Mohamed Ali Saeed | May 11, 2008

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in a televised address Sunday May 11, 2008, said his forces have crushed the rebels (AP)

KHARTOUM (AFP) - Sudan on Sunday severed diplomatic ties with Chad, accusing its neighbour of backing a first ever Darfur rebel assault on Khartoum, and partly lifted a curfew amid its clampdown on remaining rebels.

The government said it had repulsed the assault by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), allegedly backed by Ndjamena, which saw the insurgents reach Khartoum's outskirts with the declared intent of toppling the regime.

"We are forced to sever diplomatic relations with this regime" in Chad, President Omar al-Beshir said on state television following the attack on the capital's twin city of Omdurman just across the river Nile.

"We place the entire responsibility for this attack on Chad," he said after returning from Muslim pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and swapping traditional white robes for his field marshall's military uniform.

The Chadian government said it regretted Khartoum's decision to break off diplomatic relations. "Chad can only take note of this hasty decision with regret," said a statement.

Police spokesman Major General Mohamed Abduil Majeed said a curfew had been lifted in Khartoum but remained in force in Omdurman until further notice.

The Egyptian news agency MENA said Khartoum international airport was closed for security reasons.

Remnant rebel forces were still in a number of residential areas in Omdurman, and the corpses of rebels, arms and explosives were being collected, the police spokesman told Sudan's official SUNA news agency.

Sudan meanwhile said it had opened a telephone hotline and offered a 250-million-pound (123-million-dollar) reward for JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim, SUNA reported.

The rebels "are now either dead or prisoners of war," army spokesman Brigadier General Osman al-Aghbash told public radio.

The army said that "most of those who fell into our hands were Chadian," and that they numbered around 100. "There are certainly dead and wounded, but we can't say how many," a spokesman said.

JEM's deputy chief of staff Suleiman Sandal said that his forces had taken Omdurman but were having trouble with the urban fighting environment having come from the desert of Darfur, and had suffered deaths and injuries.

"Our troops came from Darfur," Sandal, who said he was still in Omdurman, told AFP by telephone. "This is the first time for them to fight in towns and now we are gathering our troops and thinking about what we're doing."

He said his forces had been prevented from crossing a key bridge into Khartoum overnight after taking three days to drive from Darfur in a convoy of 400 vehicles in order to depose the regime.

Sudan and Chad accuse each other of backing rebels seeking to topple their respective regimes, and Khartoum was quick to blame Ndjamena for Saturday's violence.

Foreign ministry official Ali Yousif said that Sudan had evidence of communication between the rebels, the Chad government and the Chadian embassy in Khartoum. He said five or six Chadian diplomats were expected to leave.

Sudan's representative to the African Union, Mohi Eddin Salim, said he had submitted an official protest to the AU's Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa over what it called the "terrorist action involving foreign parties."

And an emergency foreign ministers' meeting at Arab League headquarters in Cairo called to discuss the crisis in Lebanon will also discuss the unrest in Omdurman, SUNA said.

One Omdurman resident told AFP he could see smashed cars in the streets and plumes of smoke rising after a night of fighting but that electricity and water had come back online.

"We had a terrible night because of the military camp here," said the father of one, referring to a nearby base and asking not to be named.

"Up until six o'clock (0300 GMT) this morning there was very heavy bombardment. I can see smoke out of the window and smashed cars from the roof of the building."

"We're just being told to stay in and keep a low profile," a US diplomat said, also asking not to be named.

In February, rebels allegedly backed by Khartoum advanced as far as the gates of the presidential palace in Ndjamena before being repulsed.

Sudanese television on Saturday showed images of what it said were captured rebels cowering in the back of an armoured personnel carrier, along with footage of captured rebel all-terrain vehicles, field artillery and shells.

The White House said it was "very concerned" about the violence and urged both the Darfur rebels and government forces to cease hostilities.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the "use of armed force and military means by JEM" and called for "an immediate cessation of fighting."