N’Djamena
Chad cut ties with Sudan today after Khartoum-supported rebels tried and failed to take over N’Djamena. President Idriss Déby, a Zaghawa of the Bideyat clan (one of the groups against which the janjaweed, with the support of the Sudanese government, have conducted a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur), has threatened to expel the hundreds of thousands of Darfurian refugees who have fled across the border into Chad if the United Nations and African Union don’t act to stop what he called Sudanese attempts to destabilize his government. That’s probably a hollow threat, though thankfully an unnecessary one: I can’t imagine the AU and the United Nations won’t act.
Déby knows too well what can happen in these Darfur-based, Khartoum-supported insurgencies. He came to power in 1990 after a Darfur-based, Khartoum-supported insurgency that overthrew ex-president Hissène Habré. Darfur’s two main rebel groups were initially dominated by the Zaghawa and received support from Chadian Zaghawa communities, and, unofficially, Zaghawa officers whom Déby brought into the Chadian military.
Yes, it’s a bit complicated. But I think everyone can agree that the most important thing right now is to look after the refugees in Chad.

Copt Killed in Knife Attacks on Three Alexandria Churches
This seems to be big news internationally. I guess it would have been even if it weren’t Good Friday, but the timing really makes it the perfect story for the international press. Everyone will remember the clashes in Alexandria last October.

I’ve been struck by the crazy Salafi presence in Alexandria the past few times I’ve been there. You see many more bearded guys in galibayyas with niqab-draped wives in tow than you do in Cairo. The Friday sermons in the Shaabi areas are a bit more intense, the security guys hanging around outside the mosque a bit meaner-looking.

I’ve long wanted an excuse to talk to people at some of the bigger Salafi mosques. I’m not sure this would be a good time to do it, with everyone’s hair standing up on the back of their necks and with the inevitable swarm of journalists descending on the city. I hope one of them will get to the bottom of the religious zealot scene there.
What’s there to say? It’s been a bad day for religious violence. Alexandria. Deadly blasts at a mosque in India. Stilll more deaths in Iraq. Of all the stupid reasons to kill each other…

Technorati Tags: Chad, Sudan, Darfur, Alexandria, Egypt