Chad: Blood for Oil

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May 1, 2006: President Deby is running for reelection on May 3rd, even though it's against Chad law for him to run again. That has a lot of Chadians up in arms against him, for a number of reasons. Some rebels are fighting Deby because Chad has been supporting, or at least tolerating, Sudans war on black African Sudanese. Other Chad rebels are angry because Deby will not fight against Arab Sudanese militias who are attacking black Africans in both Chad and Sudan (Darfur). Chad and Sudan both have Arab and black African tribes. Some tribes have clans on both sides of the border. Deby would like the Darfur situation to go away, as his priority these days is stealing as much of Chad's new oil wealth as possible.

April 30, 2006: French troops took part in defeating the April 13 attempt to overthrow president Deby. France did not want the pro-Sudan group from taking over in Chad, because that would probably lead to the same kind of Arab/black African violence going on in Darfur.

April 28, 2006: The government has reached a temporary agreement and backed off from its threat to stop oil shipments. The government wants to use oil money, put aside for social projects, to buy weapons and pay bribes to help keep president Deby in power. The World Bank will now give the government directly 30 percent of oil revenues, instead of 15 percent before. This money is almost impossible to audit, and most is believed to be stolen by government officials (president Deby and his cronies.)

 

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