Late yesterday, I briefly speculated that the latest upsurge in violence in Chad is being stimulated by the prospect of the forthcoming EU deployment there. Alors, that is now the official position of the French government:
Pour le ministre de la défense, Hervé Morin, les récents événements sont “directement liés” au déploiement au Tchad et en Centrafrique de l’Eufor Tchad-RCA, la force européenne qui doit protéger des centaines de milliers de personnes déplacées ou réfugiées en raison du conflit faisant rage au Darfour, dans l’ouest du Soudan.Même “neutre”, estime M. Morin, l’Eufor Tchad-RCA “va gêner les desseins des rebelles tchadiens”, en limitant leur liberté de mouvement. La France doit contribuer avec environ 2 100 hommes à cette force européenne qui en comptera à terme près de 3 700.
Or will it? Oddly enough, the Irish – who are the supposed to be the next biggest supplier of troops after the French – lack M. Morin’s somewhat sanguine approach to the whole affair:
The deployment of 54 Irish peacekeepers for Chad that was postponed last night appears threatened by further heavy fighting around the capital N’Djamena today with the European Union now monitoring the situation hour by hour.
Which is probably another way of saying that a lot of European planners are getting really cross and wondering what Paris has got them into.
