Chad army helicopter fires rockets into Sudan – French source

May 16, 2998 (PARIS) — Sudan’s Darfur border racked by tension over rebel activity and refugee flows, a French military source told AFP.

“Three Chad army helicopters took off at 0530 (GMT) and 0545 from Abeche, one of which fired rockets before returning to its base,” the French source stated.

The three helicopters, a Mi-171 transport and two Mi-35 gunships, were each equipped with rocket-launchers, having been moved from the capital Ndjamena to the border region.

The source said French soldiers numbering 1,250 and based in Chad under a longstanding shared defence agreement between Ndjamena and Paris had no knowledge of Chadian rebel movements in the area.

Similar numbers of French troops are also in the region under the leadership of a European Union peacekeeping mission, and their high command in Brussels also spoke Friday morning of an incident involving rebels, although without specifying if they were Sudanese in origin or backed by Khartoum.

EU military officials had said that the head of the EUFOR mission in the region, Irish Lieutenant General Patrick Nash, had relayed concern at the meeting.

“He said that something happened this morning involving rebels in eastern Chad. He didn’t specify if they came from Sudan or not. They are still investigating what happened,” one officer said, on condition of anonymity.

“There are no details at the moment,” he said.

A second officer confirmed Nash’s comments.

A rebel spokesman, Abderaman Koulamallah, denied any attack by Chadian government forces.

“A Chadian helicopter overflew our positions along the border at high altitude, but sheered off as soon as we disclosed our anti-aircraft guns,” he told AFP by telephone.

He claimed EUFOR was trying to boost morale among government troops, adding, “We are preparing for a battle and they are panicking.”

The head of the African Union, Jean Ping, held talks with the presidents of Chad and Sudan on Thursday in a bid to resolve a growing stand-off.

(AFP)