Chadian rebels attack town near Sudan border

Dec 1, 2006 (N’DJAMENA) — Chadian rebels said they attacked and occupied a town near the border with Sudan on Friday, but the government said its forces had beaten them off.

Communications Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said the government garrison at Guereda in the eastern district of Biltine, 30 km (20 miles) from the border with Sudan’s Darfur region, was attacked by “mercenaries in the pay of Khartoum”.

“Our defence and security forces energetically pushed back the mercenaries,” he said, adding government troops were in pursuit of the rebels. Chad’s government accuses neighbouring Sudan of backing the rebels, a charge denied by Khartoum.

A coalition of rebel groups fighting to overthrow President Idriss Deby said the government forces had fled and their fighters had entered Guereda.

“For the moment, we have the town under our control…our forces are inside,” Yaya Dillo Djerou, a spokesman for the rebel coalition which includes the anti-Deby Rally of Democratic Forces (RAFD), told Reuters by satellite phone.

He said the rebels had seized government military vehicles.

Earlier, a foreign humanitarian worker based in Guereda had told Reuters by telephone the sounds of machinegun, artillery and mortar fire could be heard close by.

Another aid official who coordinates operations in eastern Chad, where the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR runs camps for more than 200,000 Sudanese refugees from Darfur, said she had heard the town had fallen to the rebels.

There was no immediate information about casualties.

In parallel attacks a week ago, RAFD fighters briefly seized the district capital Biltine, while another rebel group, the UFDD, occupied for one day the main eastern city, Abeche.

The rebels have launched a series of raids and offensives in eastern Chad this year, often striking with mobile columns of pick-up trucks mounted with machineguns and rocket launchers.

Sometimes they occupy towns and villages for just a few hours before melting into the desert or withdrawing to mountain hideouts.

Former colonial power France is giving the Chadian army logistical and intelligence support, provided by a French military contingent including Mirage fighter jets.

(Reuters)