Darfur Crisis Spills Over Onto Neighbor

Central African Republic troops stand guard at an airstrip on the outskirts of Birao, the small sun-blasted capital of Vakaga, a region held for a month by rebels until late 2006, Central African Republic, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2007. Central African Republic has struggled for more than a year to contain a homegrown low-intensity rebellion in the northwest. Now, a new insurgency in the northeast near Sudan's Darfur region has compounded this fragile nation's troubles and displaced tens of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam) (Schalk Van Zuydam - AP)

BIRAO, Central African Republic -- Central African Republic has struggled for more than a year to contain a rebellion in the northwest. Now, a new insurgency in the northeast near Sudan's Darfur region has compounded this fragile nation's troubles and displaced tens of thousands of people.

"The security situation was always deplorable, but it's gotten worse with Darfur," regional Gov. Franck Francis Gazi told The Associated Press in Birao, the sun-blasted capital of Vakaga, a region held for a month by rebels until late 2006. "The conflict in Sudan has consequences for us. There is a cause and effect."

President Francois Bozize accuses Sudan's Omar al-Bashir of backing the northeastern rebels, charges Sudan denies. Diplomats and U.N. officials say it's unclear who is supporting them, but insurgents are believed to operate in part from bases in Darfur.

The U.N. Security Council said Friday that a recent U.N. mission to Birao found no "compelling evidence" that troubles in the northeast are directly related to Darfur. But the mission, it said, "took note of the government's view that the two situations are linked."

Nevertheless, the U.N. is studying creating a peacekeeping force that would deploy hundreds of troops to Central African Republic and thousands more to Chad to prevent incursions along the countries' borders with Darfur.

The barren frontier region is remote and poorly policed. Central African Republic, a nation of 4 million, has an army of fewer than 4,500 men, with only 1,000 soldiers actively deployed. A border post can be one guard.

Herdsmen and smugglers have crossed these borderlands without passports for centuries with ease _ as have armed groups and arms traffickers.

In April 2006, Chadian rebels based in Darfur traversed Central African Republic en route to attack Chad's capital. The same month, a cargo plane carrying arms and dozens of combatants left Sudan and landed on two consecutive days in the Central African Republic town of Tiringoulou. Some diplomats and senior U.N. officials believe the plane carried the seeds of the northeast rebellion.

The region suffered its first major rebel attack Oct. 29, when insurgents seized Birao and held it for weeks. Gazi said Sudanese and Chadians were among the attackers, who went on to take a half dozen small towns before retreating after a government assault led by French forces bolstered by attack helicopters and Mirage fighter jets.

For now, Vakaga is quiet, though rebels control territory in the area. Two weeks ago, a woman was shot and killed in a roadside ambush near Birao, Gazi said.

About 60 percent of Vakaga's villages are abandoned, said Karline Kleyer of MSF-Holland, the only non-governmental humanitarian organization operating here. The region is home to about 56,000 people.

"People are afraid, very afraid ... of the rebels, of the governmental troops," Kleyer said. "The population is almost forced to take sides. They're told 'You're with us, or you're against us.' They're trapped in the middle."

During the rebel occupation, most residents fled Birao, living as homeless refugees. They survived on fruit, roots and whatever was left from their fields.

"We lived like animals, we ate whatever we could find," said Sende Dieudonne, a 34-year-old teacher whose home was looted. Some women said rebels raped them.

Similar insecurity elsewhere in the country has displaced about 150,000 people, while 70,000 more fled to Chad and Cameroon, according to the U.N, which says tens of thousands of women have been raped by combatants.

Most of Central African Republic's problems appear internal, however, born of a long history of poverty, coups, mutinies and rebellions. But conflict in Darfur can easily affect the situation here _ and may already have done so.

Sudan has opposed a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur, a region at war since 2003, when rebels from ethnic African tribes rose up against the central Arab-led government. The Sudanese government is accused of responding in part by backing Arab militia in Darfur who have been accused of some of the conflict's worst atrocities.

The U.N.'s special envoy to Bangui, Lamine Cisse, said if Sudan was supporting the rebellion, the aim might be to discourage peacekeepers from deploying.

"Their strategy is no troops in Darfur," Cisse said. "So, no troops close to the boundary with Darfur. They can't say ... 'Don't accept troops in your country,' because it's a question of sovereignty. But on the ground they can make trouble."

Sudan also may be backing rebels in Chad and Central African Republic to undermine their governments. Bozize is closely allied with Chad, and Chadian soldiers are part of the presidential guard. Under a security pact, Chad's military is free to cross into Central African Republic.

About 2,000 Chadian troops used to be on Central African Republic's northern border, keeping pressure on the northwestern rebellion. But the troops were sent to fight Darfur-based Chadian rebels in eastern Chad last year.

As a result, rebels here launched new attacks and Bozize's presidential guard retaliated by burning countless villages whose inhabitants were suspected of supporting the rebellion.

Along the main northern road from Paoua to Markounda on the Chad border, village after village sits abandoned. Thatched roofs have collapsed and burned. Red-earth walls have been torn down and charred.

The sound of an approaching vehicle one recent day sent dozens of women and children running in fear for fear of soldiers. They returned minutes later when they saw only aid workers and human rights officials.