Chad President Mahamat Déby has held high-level talks with United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi, attempting a delicate diplomatic balancing act as the Sudanese civil war rages on Chad’s eastern border.
The official working visit focused on expanding economic ties, trade, development, and renewable energy. Central to the discussions were the ongoing negotiations for a UAE-Chad Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), designed to advance co-operation between the public and private sectors of both nations.
However, Geopolitical analyst Aaron Nga’mbi points out that the economic charm offensive masks a highly complex security dilemma for Chad. The UAE faces persistent international accusations of backing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group fighting the Sudanese armed forces.
Meanwhile, Chad has borne the humanitarian brunt of the Sudanese conflict, hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled the violence across the border.
Nga’mbi described Déby’s engagement with Abu Dhabi as a high-stakes balancing act. While Chad requires foreign investment and economic partnerships to secure domestic stability, it must navigate the reality that its primary economic benefactor stands accused of fueling the very instability threatening its eastern frontier.
Despite these underlying security tensions, the public face of the bilateral talks remained strictly economic, underscored by a heavy presence of trade, energy, and development officials from both governments.
–ChannelAfrica–
