The Adre border crossing between Chad and Sudan has remained closed for five consecutive days as talks continue to end the standoff.
Chadian authorities shut the crossing after a Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander, Al-Tayeb Masoud, erected a tollbooth near the border and began charging 15,000 Sudanese pounds per horse-drawn cart entering Sudan.
Around 400 such carts, many owned by Chadian army officers, cross daily, transporting food and goods into Sudan.
With commercial trucks already banned, this route had become essential for local trade.
Officials in West Darfur reportedly rejected Masoud’s request to legitimise the toll gate and burned down the tent his men had set up to collect fees.
Chadian border officials later met and agreed that the crossing would reopen only after Masoud dismantled the tollbooth and withdrew his forces from the area.
Tensions were further fuelled by celebrations in Asanga, just 100 metres from the border, where Sudanese gunmen fired into the air to mark the RSF’s capture of El Fasher.
Chadian authorities also cited the need to reorganise border controls and curb smuggling, particularly of trucks entering from Libya without customs duties, which had triggered protests among local traders.
