By Pascal Fletcher

DAKAR, Sept 17 (Reuters) - The Chad to Cameroon oil pipeline, abandoned last week by the World Bank, failed to benefit the poor in those nations and created a new "petro-dictatorship" in Africa, anti-poverty campaigners said on Wednesday.

A coalition of human rights and environmental groups accused the World Bank of "throwing in the sponge" by withdrawing from the $4 billion production pipeline operated by U.S. major Exxon Mobil Corp. <XOM.N>.

The facility started pumping crude from landlocked Chad in 2003, carries 170,000 barrels per day and continues to operate despite the World Bank pullout.

"The project's outcome is disastrous. In the name of fighting poverty, it has rather contributed to impoverishing Chad's people and adding a new member to the petro-dictators' club," the coalition said in a statement sent to Reuters.

The statement was subscribed by the U.S.-based Environmental Defense Fund, the Chadian Association for Human Rights (ATPDH) and two Cameroon civil society groups, the Centre for Environment and Development (CED) and Network to Fight against Hunger (RELUFA) -- all fierce previous critics of the project.

Announcing its withdrawal from the pipeline -- one of its biggest investments in Africa and billed as a test case -- the World Bank said Chadian President Idriss Deby's government had failed to comply with agreed commitments to set aside a chunk of its oil revenues for local communities, health and education.

Chad played down the lender's pullout, saying its oil output was unaffected and that non-oil cooperation would continue.

"The bank withdraws from this project without too much loss," the rights coalition said in its criticism, noting that Chad this month prepaid to the lender the outstanding balance of $65.7 million under the $140 million loan deal.

But it said the quality of life of the people of Chad and Cameroon, many living along the length of the 1,000 km (620-mile) pipeline on its route to the Atlantic coast, had worsened.

"Only the quality of life of Chadian President Idriss Deby and of the consortium led by Exxon Mobil has improved," it said.

FUEL FOR DARFUR CONFLICT

The statement said Deby, who won a third term in 2006 elections after removing a constitutional two-term cap, now enjoyed from his country's oil production "an annual income of more than a billion dollars which allows him to stay in power".

It also accused him of using Chadian oil money to finance the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in Darfur which is fighting the Sudanese government in the war-torn region.

"This bad use of funds is in this way worsening the suffering of the people of Darfur and of the refugees inside Chad's borders," the statement said.

Deby has accused his eastern neighbour and oil producer Sudan of backing rebels opposed to him. Khartoum denies this.

The rights groups said that the pipeline project, conceived as a model for the beneficial use of oil resources, had actually aggravated Chad's economic, social and political problems.

It said the World Bank had failed to leave in place in Chad and Cameroon qualified local personnel, equipment or procedures to handle an operation of this scale.

Peasants in southern Chad had lost more of their land than originally envisaged in the construction of the pipeline and this had "worsened the food crisis in this region, one of the most fertile in the country", the coalition said.

It said the already fragile lifestyle of the Bakola people in Cameroon who lived along the pipeline's route had deteriorated further, despite promises made by the World Bank.

Planned environmental safeguards against accidental oil spills had also been left unoperational, the statement said.

It called on the World Bank to review its operating methods and investigate the damage caused by the project so that those affected in Chad and Cameroon could be compensated. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Editing by Peter Millership)

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