Blurring of borders contributes to conflict
Re “Sudan War Spills Into Chad,” June 19
There have been hundreds of reports on Darfur by humanitarian agencies and a plethora of journalist and media presentations.
At no time, however, have any of them explained the geographical reality of Darfur.
Darfur lies in the great basin of Chad, not in the Nile Valley of Sudan. The peoples living in Chad and Darfur have moved back and forth for centuries and have studiously ignored the boundary that was established in 1924.
The current disaster in Darfur is regrettably just another more violent and tragic episode in Africa’s 40-year war for control of the Chad basin, in which Darfur was the haven and staging area for the insurgents who overthrew the government of Chad in 1982 and 1990.
ROBERT O. COLLINS
Santa Barbara
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