The Sudan Handbook

sudan’s REGional RElations 259

by Idriss Déby that took N’Djamena from the pro-American Hissène

Habré. Through this coup, the Sudanese Islamist regime scored a major

victory against the United States. The French government also saw it as

victory: they had deposed Habré, who had become anti-French (despite

the support that France had offered him against Gaddafi), annoyed the

Americans, and improved their relationship with the pariah regime in

Khartoum, which needed at least one major Western power on its side.

The situation had the air of a long-delayed revenge for the Fashoda

incident of 1898, the imperial dispute between Britain and France, when

a French expeditionary force was compelled to withdraw from their

bridgehead on the Nile near Malakal.

This power change in Chad started a honeymoon period between

Khartoum and N’Djamena, during which the Sudanese regime, isolated

internationally, felt it had acquired some solid support. It also enabled

Khartoum discreetly to play N’Djamena off against Tripoli, since Idriss

Déby, a former officer in Habré’s army who had defeated the Libyans

at the battle of Maa’ten es-Sarra, had little sympathy for Gaddafi. The

Islamist regime in Khartoum, while wanting to keep superficially good

relations with Gaddafi, had no real enthusiasm for a leader who was seen

by Islamists everywhere as a potential heretic and as a competitor.

The honeymoon lasted until the Darfur revolt erupted in February

2003. At first, faithful to the Sudanese regime that had supported him,
      Déby tried to help Khartoum crush the insurrection, even loaning the
      Sudanese army several helicopters. But this position soon became unten-
      able because of Chadian internal politics. Déby is a Zaghawa from the
      Biday group and many of the Sudanese insurgents were themselves
      Zaghawa. Thus, in supporting Khartoum he was supporting the destruc-
      tion of fellow tribesmen. In May 2005 a number of Zaghawa Chadian
      Army officers carried out a quasi-coup in which they forced Déby to
      reverse his Darfur policy and start backing the rebels.
      Khartoum answered in kind, assembling a full-size army of Chadian
      rebels and launching it against N’Djamena. In April 2006 the rebels set
      out from the Central African Republic and attempted to take the capital,

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors but were defeated. Khartoum took the plan back to the drawing board

(www.riftvalley.net).