New details about President Kaka s break with the US have emerged as the election exposes some of the political manoeuvring within the elite, The campaigning which culminated in national elections on 6 May proved livelier than expected. Yet nobody doubts that President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno Kaka will win, probably with over 50%, removing the need for a second round on 22 June. The aftermath is likely to prove the much greater challenge than the prelude as he attempts to juggle east and west in his international relations.
After a year of fighting that has all but destroyed the country, outsiders either ignore or sponsor the rival military factions, It was a cruelly surreal moment after a year of what has become the world s most destructive war, with over 8 million people driven from their homes and 17m now facing the threat of a military-induced famine. Commander of the Sudan Armed Forces General Abdel Fattah al Burhan announced on Eid el Fitr (10 April in Sudan) that his aim was not to return to any civilian regime like the radical reforming one of 2019-2021 or the oppressive rule of Gen Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir s National Islamic Front (then National Congress Party) from 1989 to 2019.
Obsessed by Gaza and Ukraine, delegates couldn’t agree on a path to restart ceasefire negotiations, On 15 April, a year after war between the rival military factions broke out in Sudan, France s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Union hosted an international conference in Paris raising over €2 billon (US$2.1bn) in aid pledges. It also called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and for the rival factions to stop blocking and stealing humanitarian aid. Questions remain about how many of those pledges will be honoured to assist a conflict that the west and the international system have largely ignored.
A letter to Washington has put relations in the cooler, as overtures to the Kremlin increase and the president ponders a change of allegiance, On 4 April the Chadian government threatened to cancel the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States, the law that regulates the conditions under which the 100 or so US soldiers, mainly Special Forces, operate in the country. Coming so soon after the Niger military junta s breach with the US – which also centred on the SOFA – the letter underlines the fragility of the US position in the Sahel.
A letter to Washington has put relations in the cooler, as overtures to the Kremlin increase and the president ponders a change of allegiance, On 4 April the Chadian government threatened to cancel the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States, the law that regulates the conditions under which the 100 or so US soldiers, mainly Special Forces, operate in the country. Coming so soon after the Niger military junta s breach with the US – which also centred on the SOFA – the letter underlines the fragility of the US position in the Sahel.