Janjaweed militias and Chadian rebel groups backed by the Sudanese government are launching deadly cross-border raids on villages in eastern Chad, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday. Based on a January-February investigation in eastern Chad, the 15-page report, "Darfur Bleeds: Recent Cross-Border Violence in Chad," documents a sharp increase in attacks against civilians in Chad by Sudanese government-backed Janjaweed militias and Chadian rebel groups. "The government of Sudan is actively exporting the Darfur crisis to its neighbor by providing material support to Janjaweed militias and by failing to disarm or control them," said Peter Takirambudde, HRW's Africa director. "The Janjaweed are doing in Chad what they have done in Darfur since 2003: killing civilians, burning villages and looting cattle in attacks that show signs of ethnic bias," he added.The report quoted dozens of interviews with some of the tens of thousands of Chadians who have fled their homes. "I was sleeping and then I heard the guns and the screaming. I got up and my son was bleeding. I ran to him and I saw that he was dead," the report quoted one 35-year-old Chadian woman from a non-Arab tribe as saying. "I ran back and that was when I was shot ... I just saw blood," said the woman whose leg was later amputated. She said seven were killed in that attack, including her son and her husband.
Chad, which is under threat from its own insurgents, withdrew its border troops to protect its main frontier towns. HRW said Janjaweed militias have taken advantage of the vacuum and are raiding deeper into Chadian territory, unchecked by either Chadian or Sudanese armed forces. HRW said it had evidence of Sudanese Army involvement in the militia attacks and had documented at least four attacks by Sudanese armed forces on eastern Chadian villages. "Witness accounts and physical evidence indicated that government of Sudan troops and helicopter gunships participated directly in attacks, while many people reported seeing Antonov aircraft approach from Sudan, circle overhead, then return to Sudan in advance of Janjaweed raids," the report said. Sudan denies its troops are involved in cross-border operations and say they do not coordinate attacks with Janjaweed.