Chad Border Zone Rocked by Clashes Between Sudanese Factions
Divided loyalties as Chadian government struggles to contain the violence
Sudanese armed groups are waging hit-and-run attacks across the Chad-Sudan border, resulting in hundreds of casualties, disrupting border trade and cross-border humanitarian operations, and raising tensions within Chad’s divided security establishment.
On the one side is the ethnic Zaghawa Joint Force, which is allied with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). On the other side is the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the largely Arab rebel group that controls much of western Sudan.
Both sides use similar tactics and equipment, relying on light mobile units well-suited to the flat, arid terrain. With the RSF ascendant in Darfur, the Joint Force has retreated into Chad, where it uses border zones like Tiné, or Tina, as staging areas from which to launch attacks back into Sudan. The RSF has responded with a growing number of incursions into Chad, by both land and air, including a drone strike on Wednesday that killed 20 people and wounded about a dozen others.
The fighting is drawing a growing number of Chadian men into the Sudanese conflict, as numerous Chadian Arabs have joined the RSF, while sympathetic Chadian Zaghawa have fought alongside the Joint Force.
Video 1: Sudanese Joint Force fighters withdrawing across the border into Chad amid sounds of clashes with pursuing RSF fighters.
Video 2: Sudanese Joint Forces fighters battling RSF fighters outside an MSF compound in Tina, Eastern Chad.
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