(NSI News Source Info) KHARTOUM - May 20, 2009: Sudan said on Wednesday it would destroy any Chadian troops that invaded its territory, after Chad said its forces were preparing to cross the border to strike at Sudan-based rebels.
Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno (C) looks at displayed weapons seized from the defeated rebel force, on May, 20 2009 at Independence square in N'jamena. Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno again denounced Sudan for a rebel offensive launched earlier this month, as officials displayed vehicles and weapons seized from the defeated force.
Chad's interim Defence Minister Adoum Younousmi said on Tuesday his forces would enter Sudan within hours to intercept rebels, increasing tensions between the two oil-producers.
Sudanese officials on Wednesday said they had seen no sign of a Chadian attack but were ready for any incursion.
"The Sudanese Ministry of Defence pointed out it will not tolerate any aggression against Sudanese lands, and warned that the armed forces would destroy any force that attempted to attack Sudanese territory," read a statement on the website of the Suna state media agency.
The two neighbours regularly trade accusations that they support each others' rebels but relations have worsened in recent weeks.
Chad said Khartoum backed a rebel attack this month just hours after they had signed a reconciliation deal in Doha. The Chad's government acknowledged it had launched air attacks inside Sudan aimed at wiping out rebel camps.
Khartoum, which denies backing the rebels, had until Wednesday only spoken of unspecified repercussions of any Chadian attack and signalled that it was still seeking a diplomatic resolution.
In another sign of heightened tensions in the remote region, peacekeepers from the joint U.N./African Union UNAMID force said Sudanese army planes attacked land close to the Chad border in north Darfur on Monday and Tuesday, the site of recent clashes between Khartoum and Darfur rebels.
UNAMID spokesman Noureddine Mezni told Reuters one bomb exploded about one kilometre (0.6 miles) from the force's base in the border town of Tina early on Tuesday.
"There were no casualties, but we are very concerned civilians and our forces could get caught in the middle of the fighting," he said.
No one was immediately available to comment from Sudan's army or Darfur's rebel Justice and Equality Movement, which says it seized the key town of Kornoi, 50km east of Tina, from Sudan government forces on Saturday.
Khartoum says N'Djamena arms and supports JEM, one of two main Darfur rebel groups that launched a rebellion against the Sudanese government in 2003.In a statement the joint U.N./African Union special representative in Darfur Rodolphe Adada on Wednesday called for an end to fighting along the border.
The U.N. says as many as 300,000 people have died in the six-year Darfur conflict which has also driven more than 2.7 million from their homes. Khartoum says 10,000 have died.
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