Darfur: Strategic Chad falls to rebels; will France intervene?

Our French colleague Roland Marchal is being interviewed today in international media as events unfold in N'Djamena, capital city of  Chad where, after heavy fighting, rebels allegedly backed by Sudan have taken over the capital. This comes as the African Union meets in Addis and in Kenya parties keep talking to try and avert a further descent into self-destruction. Is Sudan backing the rebels in Chad? And if so, after the recent Doha Debate on Darfur, what if anything will the Arab League actually do? After lots of excuses, this time around is the Arab League taking notice? Will France intervene? This latest crisis seems to be a wedding present to French president Nicholas Sarkozy. Trapped in the presidential palace, with heavy arms fire in the background, Chad president Idris Deby is said to have been on the phone with Sarkozy. The two nations have a military agreement and about 1500 French forces are in the country. Chad is incredibly strategic as sole haven to about a quarter million Darfur refugees. It's also the center for humanitarian aid in the region bordering Darfur as well as the planned launch site for 3,700 EUFOR - European Union - peacekeepers scheduled to be deployed in Chad. Most of those EUFOR troops are French. The question right now and in the next few hours to come is whether France and the EU, and the "international community" will somehow intervene and respond to a coup, in a strategic region, developing as we speak.