Chad’s Deby disbands bodyguard after mutinies

Oct 29, 2005 (NDJAMENA) — Chadian President Idriss Deby disbanded the Republican Guard, an elite military unit tasked with his protection, in the wake of an incident of mutiny and desertion, a decree said Saturday.

“The Republican Guard is disbanded,” the decree, signed late Friday, stated without giving a reason.

The 3,000 men and their equipment would be assigned to ordinary army units, it added.

The Republican Guard was accused of being behind a coup attempt in May last year, but no sanctions were taken against any of its members.

Last month a number of troops from various units — 40 according to the government but 800 according to the mutineers — deserted in an incident described by western diplomats as an internal dispute within Deby’s Zaghawa clan.

The army later claimed to have smashed the rebellion and sent the mutineers fleeing from their positions in the east of the country toward Sudan, but an opposition leader, Yaya Dillo Djerou, denied it.

(AFP/ST)