Chadian rebels claim have captured another eastern Chad town
Dec 8, 2006 (N’DJAMENA) — Rebels have captured another eastern Chad town after fighting government troops, a rebel spokesman said Friday.
However, Chad’s defense minister said later Friday that government forces had recaptured the town after a battle that saw 40 rebels and soldiers killed and 70 combatants injured.
Both officials gave contradictory accounts of who was in control of Biltine and when the rebels captured it.
In recent weeks Chadian rebels have captured and then retreated from several eastern Chad towns as well as capturing tanks, heavy arms and equipment from government forces.
Rebels of the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development, known by the French acronym UFDD, took the town of Biltine, 500 kilometers (311 miles) northeast of the capital, N’djamena, on Thursday evening after fighting government forces, said Ali Moussa Izzo, the group’s spokesman, in a statement. He did not give casualty figures.
The rebels also shot down a Chadian army helicopter, Izzo said.
Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Bichara Issa Djadallah told The Associated Press “our forces took control of Biltine yesterday (Thursday) afternoon,” adding that government forces are pursuing the rebels.
A resident of Biltine said that the rebels were still in the town Friday morning. The resident spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The same rebel group clashed with the army at the eastern Chad garrison town of Guerada, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Chad’s border with Sudan, over three days during which 130 rebels and soldiers died and another 222 injured, government spokesman Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said Tuesday.
The army repulsed the rebels from Guerada over the weekend.
Chadian rebels aiming to topple President Idriss Deby have clashed sporadically with government forces since 2005. The competition for power in the central African nation has become more intense since Chad began exporting oil in 2003.
There are also fears that Chad’s conflict is being worsened by a spillover of the violence in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.
(AP)