VZCZCXRO7428
PP RUEHMA RUEHROV
DE RUEHNJ #1255/01 2961431
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 231431Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4488
INFO RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NDJAMENA 001255 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE, SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PREL PREF CD SU
SUBJECT: CHADIAN REBELS AND INTER-ETHNIC CLASHES IN GOZ 
BEIDA AREA 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: On October 22, Chadian rebels 
occupied the Chadian town of Goz Beida (southeastern 
Chad) for less than 24 hours.  Able to take the town 
without a fight (local authorities had left the day 
before), the rebels reportedly departed northward. 
Rebels did not threaten humanitarian workers, and 
support for refugee camps in the area continues as 
before.  Goz Beida is in a region of escalating ethnic 
animosity along the Chad/Sudan border with a resulting 
increase in IDP flows westward.  In the complicated 
mosaic of ethnicities in this part of Chad, it appears 
that that a Government of Chad/Dadjo alliance is 
coalescing against a Chadian rebel/janjaweed/Sudanese 
Government of National Unity (GNU) alliance.  End 
Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) UNHCR Country Director Serge Male notified 
the Embassy that Chadian rebels (reportedly a fusion of 
the Democratic Revolutionary Council of Acheikh Ibn 
Oumar, Mahamat Nouri's Union of Forces for Progress and 
Democracy, and the Tama-led FUC) had taken the town of 
Goz Beida without any resistance at about 3 p.m. on 
October 22.  The rebel group calls itself the Union of 
Forces for Democracy and Development (French acronym 
UFDD). Local authorities had departed the area the 
previous day.  The rebels visited the UN compound, 
assured humanitarian workers that they meant them no 
harm, and patrolled the town. Later that day, some 30 
of their number departed Goz Beida northward in the 
direction of Ade (where the GOC has heavily fortified 
positions, including attack helicopters).  Overall the 
rebels were reported to have some 50 - 60 vehicles. 
UNHCR reported that by October 23 all rebels had 
departed Goz Beida without incident; meanwhile, a rebel 
spokesman on Radio France International claimed that 
rebel forces continued to control Goz Beida and Ade. 
(Comment: Inasmuch as Chadian authorities have not 
returned to Goz Beida, it is not clear who, if anybody, 
is in control. End comment.)  The UN reports that it 
has been able to move about without difficulty, and the 
humanitarian workers are providing the usual level of 
support for refugees in surrounding refugee camps. 
 
¶3. (SBU) PolOff traveled extensively in the region 
prior to the October 22 incursion, and was informed 
that from October 13-14, heavily armed janjaweed 
(widely believed to be actively supported by the GNU) 
attacked Chadian Dadjo populations and IDPs in the Goz 
Beida area.  Refugees in the neighboring camp of Djabal 
reported dramatic versions of the conflict to PolOff. 
One Refugee Committee leader described aggressive 
janjaweed activity in the vicinity of For Baranga, 
where three men were abducted from the village, loaded 
into a truck and killed on the road.  He warned of the 
union between the janjaweed and Chadian Arabs, who were 
receiving Sudanese assistance in the GNU's bid to oust 
President Deby.  The Refugee Committee Leader 
acknowledged to PolOff that refugees in Djabal looked 
to SLA rebels for "protection" and were only too eager 
to leave the camp to help in the fight against the 
janjaweed.  In the IDP camp of Gouroukoun, the Chef des 
Chefs told PolOff that President Bashir and the GNU 
were the root of all problems in the Goz Beida area and 
the sources behind the janjaweed atrocities that had 
driven almost 3,000 new IDPs to locations near the Goz 
Amir refugee camp since early October.  According to 
the Secretary-General of Goz Beida, President Bashir, 
in an attempt to "Balkanize" the sub-region, is using 
the janjaweed and scorched-earth techniques to 
destabilize the black African villages in Chad, 
beginning in the east and moving inland. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) UNICEF representatives in the area described 
the emergence in the southern border region of an "Arab 
alliance," comprised not only of janjaweed elements but 
also of Chadian rebels and even non-Arab members of 
certain local tribes (according to the Chef des Chefs 
in the Gouroukoun IDP camp, these tribes include the 
Ouddai, the Noimbi, the Taqo, the Maharia, the 
Shigerat, the Nabak, the Maseria Rouge and the Mimi). 
Some of these groups reportedly received written 
invitations to join this alliance. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) UNHCR Goz Beida representatives told Poloff 
October 16 that in response to the emerging "Arab 
alliance," there is an inchoate "black alliance" 
forming among those groups who declined the invitation 
to join the Arab alliance and who believe it is 
necessary to defend non-Arab interests in the region 
against Darfur-style persecution.  On one side are the 
"Arabs": janjaweed, Chadian rebels, the Ouddai and the 
Mimi; and on the other are the "blacks": the Dadjo, the 
 
NDJAMENA 00001255  002 OF 002 
 
 
Masalit, the Mobi and the Singar.  International 
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Goz Beida rep did not 
dismiss this theory out of hand but did note that the 
phenomenon of proxy warfare may also be at work.  ICRC 
rep also observed that Chadian forces were now openly 
admitting that they were fighting in the south to 
protect villagers (i.e. Dadjo) from persecution, 
something they had not done in previous months during 
similar instability. 
 
Comment 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The sequence of events is reminiscent of the 
start of the April 13 attacks on N'djamena, which also 
commenced in Goz Beida.  While an advance on N'djamena 
is unlikely to play out in a similar manner this time, 
the outbreak of fighting in Eastern Chad will lead to 
wider inecurity with unpredictable results.