Chad rebels seize capital after heavy fighting

February 2, 2008 (NDJAMENA) — Chadian rebels took control of the country’s capital on Saturday after fierce fighting with government forces, as France sent more troops to the central African nation, military sources said.

President Idriss Deby, who had reportedly gone to the front the previous day, remained at the presidential palace after rebels seized Ndjamena following three hours of fighting, according to one of the sources.

“The whole of the city is in the hands of the rebels. It’s down to mopping-up operations,” the military source said.

Despite the reports, Chad’s foreign minister told AFP Saturday that Deby was at the presidency and the situation was under control in the city.

“There are rebel infiltrations in the city but the situation is under control… There are clashes in the city but no large-scale fighting,” Amad Allam-Mi said in Addis Ababa, where he is attending an African Union summit.

“I spoke with the presidency 10 minutes ago and they assured me that the situation (was under) control,” he said shortly before 1030 GMT.

Heavy fighting between some 2,000 rebels opposed to Deby and government forces had raged in the capital on Saturday, notably around the presidential palace, a French army source said in Paris.

The French chief of staff announced that a combat unit of 150 extra troops had arrived in Chad, bringing to 1,450 the number posted there.

France also warned its nationals located there to remain indoors and prepared to evacuate them. The country has 1,500 citizens in Chad, a former French colony, with 85 percent of them in the capital.

In Paris, President Nicolas Sarkozy was assured that all steps had been taken to ensure the safety of French citizens, a presidential spokesman said.

A rebel convoy of 300 pick-ups, each capable of carrying between 10 and 15 men, had been advancing on Ndjamena since Monday, when they left rear bases across the border in western Sudan’s Darfur.

The offensive — the biggest since April 2006 — comes after rebel leaders Timan Erdimi, Mahamat Nouri and Adbelwahid Aboud Makaye joined forces in mid-December after a previous peace pact with Deby fell apart.

They were stopped Friday, when Chad’s general staff said the army had engaged a large group of rebels at Massaguet, about 50 kilometres (31 miles) northeast of the capital, and “entirely destroyed this column after 40 minutes of fighting”.

But fighting broke out just north of the capital Saturday morning, both sides said. Heavy arms fire, at first sporadic and increasingly intense and regular, could be heard in central Ndjamena.

Witnesses said rebels had entered the east and southern part of the city.

Deby was reportedly at the battlefront on Friday afternoon. He returned to Ndjamena after his forces failed to turn back the rebels in fighting at Massaguet around 50 kilometres north of the capital.

He spent the night in the presidential palace, sources close to the presidency said, but no independent confirmation was available.

Rebel spokesman Abakar Tollimi said earlier by satellite telephone that government troops were “scattering”, adding of Deby: “He will fall today, it’s sure.”

Allam-Mi told AFP late Friday that a rebel attack against Ndjamena had been repelled after “serious clashes” at Massaguet.

Asked by telephone whether the rebels could take the capital, he said: “Everything is possible. We cannot rule out anything; the rebels are well armed and equipped.” He blamed Sudan for supporting the rebels.

Amid the fighting, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Geneva said it had evacuated around 160 “non-essential” staff from Ndjamena to Cameroon.

A UN statement Friday said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was “deeply concerned at the resumption of fighting in Chad” and reiterated the “United Nations’ condemnation of the use of military means to seize power”.

EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel on Friday also condemned “any attempt at an armed takeover”.

The rebel offensive began the week an EU peacekeeping force was due to start deploying advance troops in Chad and neighbouring Central African Republic to protect civilians and refugees from the Darfur conflict.

The European mission, EUFOR, announced Friday a temporary delay in troop flights to Ndjamena, one with a dozen Austrian soldiers and two with around 50 Irish soldiers and equipment.

(AFP)