Chad officials have announced they may end their involvement in mediation between the Sudan government and the rebel organizations Sudan Liberation Army and Justice and Equality Movement in Sudan’s Darfur region, responding to indications that the conflict is moving into Chad. "The Janjaweed are recruiting elements in Chad," Ahmad Allami, a personal adviser of Chadian President Idriss Deby, told the U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks on June 17. "These are exclusively Arabs. This situation risks degenerating into an inter-ethnic war between a coalition of Arabs and other ethnic groups in the region."
The Sudanese government has denied any link to the Janjaweed militants, whose attacks have forced thousands of Zaghawa, Fur, and Masaalit people to flee to refugee camps in Chad. Both the United Nations and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell accused the Sudanese government in early June of aiding the Janjaweed militias. According to Mena, the Egyptian news agency, Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir told the foreign minister of Egypt that the situation in Darfur was quiet and that foreign governments were blowing the events out of proportion.
