Chad declares war on Sudan

[Xen]

I didn't hear anything about responses.

do youeven need to; the response in this forum is response enough- some people dont even knwo where these countires are, others probably didnt even know of thier existence, and not even I, who take an interest in forign politics, had any idea this was coming- now, I rag on this forum quite a bit because of huge leval of self importance, self rightiousness, and inflated self worth of self opinions that goes on here, and by all means, i will continue to do so; but even considering this, this forum is better educated then a fair chunk of the world, and if this is the response here, then the world really will be "dude, what the really happy word "

 

[Rik Meleet]

This really is a moment. I guess not many saw that coming.
So how do you think the big players on the world podium will respond to this situation ?

 

[Xen]

This really is a moment. I guess not many saw that coming.
So how do you think the big players on the world podium will respond to this situation ?

they arnt likelly to do a damned thing of worth.

 

[Fox Mccloud]

do youeven need to; the response in this forum is response enough- some people dont even knwo where these countires are, others probably didnt even know of thier existence, and not even I, who take an interest in forign politics, had any idea this was coming- now, I rag on this forum quite a bit because of huge leval of self importance, self rightiousness, and inflated self worth of self opinions that goes on here, and by all means, i will continue to do so; but even considering this, this forum is better educated then a fair chunk of the world, and if this is the response here, then the world really will be "dude, what the really happy word "

Yeah, I know. There are some poeple who couldn't find Canada on the map, or people who don't know the Soviet Union existed. Then, we hear about these far away countries that some people never heard of declare war on each other.

 

[Kyriakos]

The only thing i found on the news was something about a depleted cow resource.
Also how exactly are the people of Chad supposed to mobilise themselves?

 

[Cheetah]

This really is a moment. I guess not many saw that coming.
So how do you think the big players on the world podium will respond to this situation ?

Realisticly?

First of all, the neighbouring coutries will be reasonably worried about any escalation of the conflict, and the potential of the war spreading to them. And let's not forget the refugees. I doubt any of the neighbouring countries would actually like to host them (economy).

Then the rest of the world: I expect some organisations like Medecins Sans Frontieres and the Red Cross/Crescent will try to help the civilians whenever the situation is deemed safe enough.

Everyone else who cares, will be looking at the oil. If any military support is given (which I highly doubt), it will be to protect the wells and pipes. Noone wants to lose Chads oil, and doesn't Sudan have some oil in the Darfur-region as well? As that is right on the border between Chad and Sudan this could be interesting.

 

[Stevenpfo]

N'DJAMENA, Chad (Reuters) -- Chad said Friday that a "state of belligerence" existed between itself and Sudan following attacks on an eastern border town by rebels it said were armed and directed by the Sudanese government.

"We demanded that Sudan cease all aggression against our country, and we told him that Chad has no bellicose feelings against Sudan," the minister said.

Not quite war ... Not yet.

 

[cgannon64]

This is shocking; I thought Africa was way past "declaring war."

 

[The Yankee]

do youeven need to; the response in this forum is response enough- some people dont even knwo where these countires are, others probably didnt even know of thier existence, and not even I, who take an interest in forign politics, had any idea this was coming- now, I rag on this forum quite a bit because of huge leval of self importance, self rightiousness, and inflated self worth of self opinions that goes on here, and by all means, i will continue to do so; but even considering this, this forum is better educated then a fair chunk of the world, and if this is the response here, then the world really will be "dude, what the really happy word "

Well, often, states will fight each other. Even if you followed the previous events, one may not guess that it would be as formalized as it is now. Usually, those kind of things just "happen" without any real statement to say so.

 

[Cheetah]

I had a look around and found some more things:

Chad has exported oil for just two years, and relies on foreign assistance and foreign capital for most public and private sector investment projects. Two US companies has been investing about $3.7 billions to develop oil reserves estimated at 1 billion barrels in southern Chad. They export 200,000 bbl/day, and most of it goes to the USA. And they got over 205 km of oil pipelines, for whoever it interests.

So yes, if Chad's oil production gets threathened, they will probably get some kind of support.

Sudan on the other hand has been implementing IMF macroeconomic reforms since 1997 (I don't know if the IMF is doing something in Chad as well), and started oil exports in 99, making it the year for their first trade surplus. They sell about 275,000 bbl/day, and it seems most of it goes to China. They have over 3,000 km of gas and oil pipelines.

I guess China would be somewhat interested in keeping their oil coming as well.

The interesting thing is the Chad is housing about 200,000 Sudanese refugees fom Darfur, and has been a mediator in the Sudanese civil war, while Sudan is housing 5,000 Chadian refugees (in addition to 100,000 Eritreans, 8,000 Ugandans and 4.3 million internals). And Sudanese refugees has gone to all the neighbouring countries as well. In fact, looking at the numer of refugees fleeing between Sudan and it's neighbours, I'm surprised anyone is talking about national borders there at all!

Hopefully this is still only hard talking. A full blown up war in addition to the small attacks and raids by rebels and militias on both sides must make a hard day much worse for the average civilian along the border.

 

[skadistic]

Iwas going to post a pregnant chad joke but won't.

I know little about afairs in afrika but who exactly did Chad declare war on? was it the Gov. or the refuges? Are they coming to the aid of the christians who are being atacked by the islamic death squads? Where the U.N. ? What happened to the African nations peace keeping force?

 

[Che Guava]

From what I've read, the border region between Chad and Sudan has been a warzone for years. I'm not sure the residents will notice that much of a difference.

I think the root of this problem is the fact that the Kartoum can't control the eastern region of Sudan, and it has become something of a free zone for radicals and militants, much like the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. I think the only reason that Chad is declaring war is so that they have a pretext to cross the border and start taking care of domestic rebels that are launching attacks from Sudan. Why else would they send thier troops into a wasteland like darfur?

I don't think this will escalate into a real war, however. Even now, there are signs of possible cooperation:

Sudan urges joint patrols with Chad to ease tension

EL-GENEINA, Sudan, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Sudan on Saturday said it was surprised by Chadian accusations it is supporting Chadian army rebels, and urged its western neighbour to form joint border patrols with Sudan to stop tensions escalating further.

(...)

"We are very surprised by this," said Sudan's state minister of foreign affairs al-Samani Wasiylah. "All the channels of communications are open between our two countries. We don't know why they are moving out of the bilateral relations to make these ... threatening statements."

(...)

"We will not let anyone use Sudanese soil to launch attacks against a neighbouring country," Samani told Reuters.

He declined to say whether Sudan would allow Chadian armed forces to cross the border into Sudan to attack the rebels, who are believed to have bases in Darfur.

"We have to first take steps to avoid this. We want to have joint border patrols but they are refusing this," he added.

link

 

[JonathanValjean]

I think Chad will hang in there.

(ok, another bad joke, but someone had to... )

Thanks for the laugh, Chieftess!

 

[Leonel]

i think it'll turn into a stale mate. sudan is weakened by a civil war that has lasted heaven's knows how long but chad doesn't have the benefit of a seaport to bring in inexpensive arms easily. besides, most african borders seem to stay put after a conflict, give or take the deaths of soldiers and civilians.

 

[Kyriakos]

Didnt Ethiopia conquer a part of Eritrea?

 

[The Yankee]

They were supposed to have the UN do border marking, but they're disputing even now. Might be another war between Ethiopia and Eritrea in the near future.

 

[Oerdin]

The only thing i found on the news was something about a depleted cow resource.
Also how exactly are the people of Chad supposed to mobilise themselves?

during the border scurmishes against Libya the Chadian army consisted of a militia of people piled into the back of old Toyota pick up trucks armed with RPGs and small arms.

 

[Stylesjl]

To be honest i don't think the rest of the world really cares what goes on due to their short attention span

Maybe in 10 years time there will be some UN commission on it and people will take historical notice

 

[Hakim]

The newspapers here refers to it as a "declaration" of "conflict" and not a war.

Seems they have not started shooting at each other. Perhaps this just politics after all.

 

[JohnRM]