Another Darfur?

The situation in Darfur is only getting worse for the millions fleeing the Janjaweed. While Darfur is having most of the attention, just over the border in Chad there is the same racial mix and incompetent government, Arab militias are killing Africans. This is not only along the border with Sudan but deep inside Chad, 100 km or so. BBC reports that:

At least one village, Djorlo, has been burned to the ground, and there are reports that some attackers climbed up trees in order to shoot at their victims below. Many of the dead have already been buried in mass graves.

The attackers were from local Arab groups, while the villages attacked were non-Arab - mainly Dadjo and Moro. The aggressors reportedly shouted: "You slaves. We have arrived and now we are attacking you."

Aid workers described the attacks as a massacre, and say they are a mirror image of Darfur.

But these attacks took place deep inside Chad, at least 100 kilometres from the Sudan border.

The Chadian government, like its neighbour to the east, is weak and incompetent and is battling rebels in the east of the country. Like it was the case with Darfur few years ago, everyone sees the looming crisis already getting out of hand, as the BBC's Stephanie Hancock says :

ethnic tensions have been on the rise in south-eastern Chad for many months, but there are signs the violence is beginning to spin out of control.

The key to averting another Darfur-like genocide is a solution to the Darfur question and the disarmament of the Janjaweed. The Sudanese government has accepted in principal for a UN role along-side the African Union troops, but the details of the UN role (who leads who?) and a deployment time-frame hasn't been agreed yet. The question is, will that happen before the situation completely gets out of hand in Chad?

Technocrati Tags: Conflict, Africa