NDJAMENA (AFP) — Chad closed its border with Sudan on Monday, its government said, ramping up tensions between the volatile neighbours after Khartoum accused Ndjamena of backing a rebel assault on the Sudanese capital.
The Chadian government ordered the "airtight sealing of the frontier in order to avoid all infiltration and suspect traffic" across its porous eastern border, and froze economic and cultural ties, a government statement said.
The move aims "to ensure the security of its territory and citizens and protect its economic and cultural interests" and to "guard against all surprises," said the statement, issued after a meeting of Chad's ministers.
The border between Chad's volatile east and the stricken region of Darfur was crossed earlier this year by rebels as they launched an armed coup attempt -- the second in as many years -- against Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno.
Deby accused Sudan of backing the fighters whom his forces drove back in intense fighting when they stormed the Chadian capital in February.
Relations have been tense between the two countries since 2003 when war broke out in Darfur, sending hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees fleeing across the Chadian border.
They broke off relations for four months in 2006 after Deby accused Sudan of arming the rebels who launched an earlier coup attempt that year.
His government on Monday froze the activities of a Sudanese bank operating in Chad, banned all financial transactions between the two countries, and said it was designating Libya to represent its interests in Sudan.
It also banned Sudanese music from being played.
Sudan severed diplomatic ties with Chad on Sunday, accusing Ndjamena of backing the rebel assault on Khartoum. Chad denied the charge.
"We place the entire responsibility for this attack on Chad," President Omar al-Beshir said on state television following the attack on the capital's twin city of Omdurman just across the river Nile.
Foreign ministry official Ali Yousif said that Sudan had evidence of communication between the rebels, the Chad government and the Chadian embassy in Khartoum.
The assault by the Justice and Equality Movement, the most powerful of the rebel groups in Darfur, saw the insurgents reach Khartoum's outskirts with the declared intent of toppling the regime.
It was the first time regional rebels had brought decades of violence so close to the seat of Sudanese power.
Observers feared Sudan would respond to the assault by arming Chadian rebels for yet another attack on Ndjamena. A French military peacekeeping source in Abeche, eastern Chad, told AFP on Monday that was "very unlikely" to happen just before the rainy season in June and July.
An AFP reporter in Abeche said the Chadian army had sent three attack helicopters there.
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