Chad extends emergency to tackle ethnic violence

N'DJAMENA, Nov 25 (Reuters) Chad is extending for six months a state of emergency in large swathes of the country, saying it needs more time to pacify ethnic conflicts that have killed hundreds and which it blames Sudan for provoking.

President Idriss Deby's government declared the emergency on Nov 13 -- initially for 12 days -- saying Chad was the victim of a campaign of deliberate military destabilisation being waged by neighbour Sudan from its violent western Darfur region.

Humanitarian workers say hundreds of Chadian villagers have been killed in recent weeks in fighting between Arab and non-Arab communities and in attacks by Arabic-speaking armed raiders on horseback, often striking across the Sudan border.

Chad accuses the Sudanese government of ''exporting'' this violence from Darfur, where a similar pattern of ethnic clashes, stemming from a local rebellion, has killed tens of thousands of people since 2003. Khartoum denies this charge.

In a statement carried on the government Web site yesterday, Chad's National Assembly approved a six-month extension of the state of emergency in the capital N'Djamena and several other regions, including the violence-hit east, effective from Sunday.

Prime Minister Pascal Yoadimnadji told the assembly late on Thursday the initial 12-day state of emergency period normally stipulated under the constitution was not long enough to restore order and stability to the worst-affected regions.

''This programmed destabilisation of our country by the Sudanese government and its repeated attacks have not yet stopped,'' Yoadimnadji said.

''We mustn't forget that thousands of people have been displaced, dozens of villages have been burned and hundreds of people have been killed,'' he added.

The emergency gives regional governors wide-ranging powers to enforce security, including a ban on unauthorised firearms.

A volatile mix of ethnic groups straddles the Chad-Sudan border and the area has a warrior tradition and history of clan warfare where the carrying of arms is common.

VORTEX OF VIOLENCE Chad, Sudan and Central African Republic share common frontiers and this tri-border region has become a vortex of violence in recent weeks, spewing refugees, rebels and bandit raiders from Sudanese Darfur into the neighbouring countries.

Despite intense international pressure, Sudan's government has refused to allow a United Nations peacekeeping force to deploy in Darfur as mandated by the Security Council.

Khartoum says accepting such a force, which would take over a struggling African Union peacekeeping contingent in Darfur, would be like accepting colonial reconquest by the West.

But other military forces are being deployed in the region.

France said on Thursday it had sent around 100 extra troops to Central African Republic, joining 200 already there, to help the country's small armed forces counter a threat by rebels who have occupied a number of northeastern towns.

Chad and the regional bloc CEMAC are also sending military reinforcements to Central African Republic, which, like Chad, says it is the victim of a regional war being waged by Sudan.

The African Union's Peace and Security Council is expected to meet in Abuja, Nigeria next week to consider the Darfur crisis and humanitarian groups are appealing to African leaders to increase pressure on Sudan to accept U.N. peacekeepers.

Reuters YA VP0745