The authorities say the measure was prompted by communal violence along the frontier. 

Chadian President, Idriss Deby, on Sunday, May 11, 2014, announced the closure of his country’s 1,000-km long border with the Central African Republic, CAR, news agency reports said. The authorities advanced as reason the communal violence along the common border that has killed thousands of people and forced nearly one million people to flee their homes.

"From today, our border with this country is tightly sealed," the Voice of America, VOA, cited the President as saying during a visit to the town of Daha, 20 km from the border. His speech was posted on the website of the Presidency a day after. "For any Chadian who wishes to return home with his property, we will open the border wide. But apart from this precise case, nobody is authorised to cross the border until the Central African crisis is solved," President Deby warned. In order to boost security, he also pledged to “substantially increase the number of defence and security forces” in the regions.

Chad that previously spearheaded African efforts to stabilise the Central African Republic, withdrew its forces last month after they were accused of siding with the Séléka militia. CAR has been the scene of fierce clashes between Séléka and anti-Balaka militias since late 2013 when anti-Balaka militants stormed the capital, Bangui, in revenge sectarian violence.

Thousands of people have been killed and nearly a million displaced in ongoing clashes in the landlocked nation of 4.5 million. Many have fled to neighbouring Chad and Cameroon. The UN has described the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Moslems by the anti-Balaka as “ethnic cleansing.”