Chad denies supplying weapons to Sudan’s paramilitary forces

Smoke billows during air strikes in central Khartoum as the Sudanese army attacks positions held by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) throughout the Sudanese capital on October 12, 2024. (AFP/File)
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LIBREVILLE: Chad on Thursday denied “amplifying the war in Sudan,” which has killed tens of thousands, by arming the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, warring against the Sudanese army for over a year.

A bloody conflict has raged since April 2023 between the Sudanese army under the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Chad’s government was accused of aiding the RSF by Sudan’s Darfur Governor Minni Minnawi, who heads a faction allied with the Khartoum government.

On Wednesday, Minnawi told radio station RFI he had traveled to Paris to “ask France to halt the role of the Chadian government in the transit through its territory of non-humanitarian aid — military equipment — to RSF-controlled areas in Sudan.”

Chad, which has taken in some 680,000 refugees from Sudan — more than any other country — rejected the claims on Thursday.

“Chad has no interest in amplifying the war in Sudan by supplying weapons,” said foreign minister and government spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah, pointing out that Chad was “one of the rare countries upon which this war has had major repercussions.”

“We do not support any of the factions that are fighting on Sudanese territory — we are in favor of peace,” Koulamallah told RFI.

The conflict in Sudan has left tens of thousands dead and some 26 million people facing severe food insecurity, with famine declared in the Zamzam displacement camp in Sudan’s western Darfur region.