Chadian army chief killed in clashes with rebels
Oct 29, 2006 (N’DJAMENA) — The joint head of Chad’s armed forces was killed in fierce fighting with rebels near the Sudanese border on Sunday, the defence minister said, in a heavy blow to embattled President Idriss Deby.
Defence Minister Bichara Issa Djadallah claimed victory in Sunday’s fighting and said more than 100 rebels were killed after government forces clashed with a convoy of insurgents which had briefly seized two Chadian towns this week.
But the death of General Moussa Sougui was a major setback to Deby, coming only months after the rebels killed his nephew and head of the army, Brigadier General Ababar Youssouf Mahamat Itno, in March. The armed forces have been drained by a steady trickle of desertions and relations with Sudan are tense.
“The (rebel) mercenaries sustained around 100 dead, several prisoners and 15 vehicles destroyed. … On the side of the forces of defence and security, there were four dead, including General Moussa Sougui who fell on the field of honour,” read a communique signed by the minister.
The fighting took place at Saraf Borgou, a village close to the border with Sudan, which Deby’s government accuses of supporting and arming the rebels. With the rebel’s escape route severed to Sudan’s western region of Darfur, Djadallah said the army would mop up the remaining fighters.
“Surrounded in a area with no way out, the mercenaries at the service of Sudan have no chance of escaping this cleaning up operation,” his statement said.
The latest clashes came after Deby’s government accused Sudan of bombing four towns along its eastern frontier on Saturday, provoking a tense diplomatic standoff only three months after the neighbours restored relations.
LONG-RUNNING INSURGENCY
The long-running insurgency against Deby, who seized power in a 1990 coup, had fallen quiet following a lighting raid across the desert on the dusty capital N’Djamena in April.
Hundreds of people died as government troops defeated the rebels, with the aid of French military intelligence, taking scores of them captive.
Chad’s rebels, divided into several ethnic factions, demand the resignation of Deby, who won a fresh five-year term in May at elections boycotted by the opposition as a farce. The opposition says only French support holds the regime in power, but French diplomats say the alternative to Deby is chaos.
“There is an urgent need for a political compromise with the political opposition, a military victory against the armed opposition, and the securing of the eastern border with Sudan for stability to return to Chad,” political risk consultancy Global Insight wrote in a report on Friday.
Last week, the heavily armed rebel convoy of the newly formed United Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) penetrated deep into Chad before melting into the desert — Chad says into Sudan — as government reinforcements arrived.
On Saturday, Chad accused Sudan of bombing the towns of Bahai, Tine, Karyari and Bamina, destroying homes and sowing panic among residents just a few kilometres (miles) from the frontier with strife-torn Darfur.
Khartoum, which alleges that Chad supports rebels in Darfur, denied its air force had taken part in any operation which would violate a deal in August to restore diplomatic relations after months of tension.
(Reuters)