Chadian anti-government rebels on Friday declared a "state of war" against French and foreign military forces in an apparent warning to a European Union peacekeeping force that plans to deploy there soon. French troops and aircraft are stationed in Chad under a bilateral defence accord. The EU force, around half of which will be French, is preparing to deploy near the eastern border with Sudan in coming weeks to protect refugees and aid workers.

Protesters took to the streets of Chad's capital N'Djamena on Thursday to demand that seven Europeans freed at the weekend return to face trial over an attempt to fly 103 African children to live in Europe. Some held placards criticising French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who flew in to pick up three French journalists and four Spanish air stewardesses on Sunday and has vowed to come back for another 10 Europeans facing child abduction charges.

The UN refugee agency and two key partners have been busy over the past week responding to the urgent needs of 103 young children caught up in an abduction scandal in the eastern Chad town of Abéché. The Chad authorities have detained and charged several Europeans, including members of the French aid agency Children Rescue/Zoe's Ark, in connection with the alleged abduction of the children, who are currently being looked after in Abéché's orphanage

Talk your way out of tensions, that's the message the UN refugee agency conveyed in a recent workshop for community leaders and local authorities in strife-torn eastern Chad. Conflict resolution and peaceful co-existence were the key words in a three-day workshop supported by UNHCR, its partner Eirine and the Association Chefs Traditionnels du Tchad (ACTT) and held in Abéché University earlier this month.

Police in Chad arrested nine French people on Thursday as they were preparing to fly more than 100 children to France with a view to having them adopted, Chad's government and French diplomats said. They included the head of a group called Zoe's Ark, which said earlier this year that it intended to bring orphans from Sudan's violent Darfur region to France for adoption.

Chad's government and four Sudan-based Chadian rebel groups signed a "definitive peace accord" in Libya on Thursday that included an immediate ceasefire, a Chadian presidency official said. The deal, which aimed to end more than two years of sporadic fighting in eastern Chad, was signed in the Libyan city of Sirte in the presence of Chadian President Idriss Deby, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the official, who asked not to named, told Reuters.

The head of the U.N.'s refugee agency has welcomed an EU decision to send 3,000 peacekeepers to eastern Chad, saying it would contribute to efforts to help civilians fleeing violence in neighboring Sudan. "It is a key instrument to allow for the security of the refugees ... and for the possibility of a more effective humanitarian operation," said Antonio Guterres, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees.

Chadian rebels attacked government troops in the eastern town of Goz Beida on Thursday, humanitarian workers said, just two days after the government declared a state of emergency in the remote border region. "Since 5 p.m. (1600 GMT) there has been shooting on the streets and fighting in town," said one Goz Beida resident who works for a foreign aid agency.

Tens of thousands of uprooted people have welcomed plans for the creation of a UN-mandated multi-dimensional mission to protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid in volatile parts of Chad and Central African Republic. But many fear it will come too late to prevent more attacks on refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs).

Four Chadian rebel groups initialled a peace agreement with the government on Wednesday at talks in Libya, a Chadian official said, but the leader of the main faction said there were many points left to resolve. "The contents are secret. An agreement should be officially signed very soon in a ceremony that will bring together heads of state in Tripoli," a senior Chadian government official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters in Chad's capital N'Djamena.

The UN Security Council has authorised the deployment of EU peacekeeping forces and UN police to protect civilians in Chad and the Central African Republic from violence spilling over from neighbouring Darfur. The resolution, drafted by France, was approved by 15 votes to zero on Tuesday.

High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres has welcomed the adoption of a UN Security Council resolution establishing a multi-dimensional United Nations mission in Chad and Central African Republic (CAR) that will help strengthen security in the region. Guterres said he looked forward to an early decision of the European Union (EU) to send military troops so that the UN force – to be known by its acronym MINURCAT – can deploy in the coming weeks and months.

Heavy rainy season downpours have left areas of eastern Chad flooded and have seriously hampered efforts by UNHCR and other aid agencies to help tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians. The rains have eased over the past week, but flooding continues to cut land access to the Koukou Angarana region in the south-east, and has forced locals and displaced people in the area to head for higher ground.

During a visit to Chad last week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Lake Chad, one of the most striking symbols of Africa’s deteriorating environment. “I came here to visit the lake to see for myself the damage caused by desertification and global warming,” Ban said. In less than 30 years, Lake Chad has shrunk from 25,000km2 to 2,000km2 today. Some 25 million people still live around the basin, many looking out on grounded boats and barren land which was once under water.

Peacekeepers are unlikely to arrive in Chad for at least three months, according to senior UN diplomats who spoke following a joint military mission to the country by representatives of the European Union and the UN. Meanwhile the World Food Programme (WFP) is launched a new appeal for funds to assist Darfur refugees in Chad and victims of inter-communal clashes in Chad.

The United Nations appealed for emergency funds for Chad to feed thousands of refugees from regional violence as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon arrived on Friday to pave the way for international peacekeepers. Most of the 380,000 civilians sheltering in eastern Chad fled civil war at home in Sudan's Darfur region, but 150,000 of them are local people forced from their homes as ethnic conflict has spilled over the border in a regional spiral of bloodshed.

China's "no-strings-attached" investments in Africa appear to many a welcome alternative to the conditional loans offered by the World Bank and IMF. But what consequences will China's growing involvement on the continent have for Africans? China has become the new lead developer in many African countries, out-funding the international financial institutions and other bilateral donors in some cases.

A joint report by the United Nations refugee agency and its Sudanese Government counterpart has recommended that the estimated 30,000 Chadians who have fled to neighbouring Darfur to escape a worsening security situation in their homeland be classified as refugees. But the report also warned that anyone in that group who is an active or former combatant in the clashes in Chad should not be granted refugee status, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis has said.

Chadian President Idriss Deby said Thursday that he accepts the idea of an interim European Union peacekeeping force in the African nation to protect people affected by violence spilling over from neighboring Darfur. Deby spoke after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been pushing for the force.

The sight that greets visitors to Goz Amir is grimly familiar in eastern Chad. Every single house has been burnt to the ground, giant clay urns used as grain stores are smashed, charred grass marks where homes once stood. It is completely deserted.