Chad Closes Its Eastern Border with Sudan

(MENAFN) N’Djamena has sealed Chad’s eastern frontier with Sudan following a weekend of cross border violence that left five Chadian soldiers and three civilians dead, according to media. Officials said at least 12 others were wounded in fighting near the border town of Tine, where Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) clashed with militias aligned with Sudan’s military government.

Sudan has been engulfed in civil war since April 2023, when tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF erupted into open conflict. What began as a power struggle in Khartoum has spiraled into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, the UN warns, with tens of thousands killed and millions displaced amid widespread hunger.

Chad has already suffered spillover from the war. Last year, a drone strike killed two of its soldiers in a cross border incident, though responsibility was never determined.

In a statement Monday, authorities said the closure was necessary to “prevent any risk of extension of the conflict” and to protect citizens as well as the nearly one million Sudanese refugees now sheltering in Chad, according to figures released this week by the UN Refugee Agency.

Communications Minister Mahamat Gassim Cherif announced that all cross border movement of goods and people is suspended “until further notice,” while noting that “exceptional exemptions, strictly motivated by humanitarian reasons, may be granted with prior authorization from the competent authorities.”

Officials also warned they reserved the right to respond to “any aggression or violation of the inviolability of its territory and its borders.”

Sudan’s military rulers have previously accused Chad of aiding the RSF by allowing fighters and weapons to pass through its territory — allegations the Central African nation has denied.

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