13 dead, six wounded in clash between Chadian army, rebels
October 19, 2007 (N’DJAMENA) — Fierce fighting in eastern Chad has left 13 rebels dead and six government soldiers wounded, the Chadian army said Friday, while the former chief of the rebels told them to lay down their arms.
“This unfortunate incident has caused 13 deaths on the side of the ex-FUC (the United Front for Democratic Change) and six wounded among the ranks of regular forces,” Army Chief of Staff General Douad Soumain said on national radio, referring to clashes Thursday between the two sides.
The rebels were driving toward Sudan at the time the fighting erupted, he said. An FUC member confirmed that the forces had been “attacked during a disarmament bid by the government army.”
N’Djamena said they were renegade members of FUC, who refuse to honour a peace agreement signed by their leader, who is now Defence Minister Mahamat Nour Abdelkarim in President Idriss Deby Itno’s government.
“At the moment calm reigns in the town of Goz-Beida and all is returned to order,” Soumain added of the place 700 kilometers (435 miles) east of the capital where Thursday’s clashes took place.
N’Djamena will continue to honor the peace agreement and the process of integrating ex-FUC fighters into the armed forces, government spokesman Hourmadji Moussa Doumgar said in a statement.
Mahamat Nour issued a statement to “inform ex-FUC members that since the signing of a peace accord in Tripoli (Libya) on December 26, 2006, they are an integral part of the forces of defence and security.”
He ordered those who had failed to do so to join the ranks or face action for insubordination and “be considered a deserter.”
On October 16, Chad’s government imposed a 12-day state of emergency on the east, where ex-FUC forces are supposed to be patrolling the border with Sudan’s crisis-wracked Darfur region, and the north of the country, because of ethnic clashes.
(AFP)