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Fighting in Chad

Fighting in Chad

Feb-3-08 11:45 pm

Ndjamena, Chad
Photo-- Sonia Rolley/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In case you missed this, the situation in Chad has been worsening the past two days. Monday's New York Times reports:

Fighting raged for a second day in the capital of Chad on Sunday, with the government making an all-out attempt to beat back rebels who had overrun the capital on Saturday, Chadian officials said. The country’s president, Idriss Déby, remained defiant in the presidential palace and directed counterattacks, the officials said.

The Chadian military struggled to regain control of the capital, Ndjamena, using tanks and helicopter gunships, officials said. Rebels fought back with automatic weapons, truck-mounted machine guns and artillery, witnesses said. French military officials said there was open fighting across the city, and news agency photos showed bodies in the streets.

On Sunday evening, the interior minister, Mahamat Bashir, said the capital was “entirely under control.”

“The savage mercenaries are fleeing, and our forces of defense and security are at their heels,” he said on Radio France International. “They tried to attack, but they were pushed back with the last energy, and we put them off-track once again.”

Chad’s minister of mines, Gen. Mahamat Ali Abdallah Nassour, said earlier that Chadian rebels and Sudanese forces had attacked the eastern border town of Adré. Speaking on R.F.I., he called the attack a “declaration of war” by Sudan.

A rebel spokesman, Henchi Ordjo, said that Adré had been “liberated” and that rebels had also captured the northern town of Faya Largeau, Reuters reported.

Another rebel spokesman, Abderaman Koulamallah, said that Mr. Déby was trapped at his presidential palace, surrounded by tanks and armored vehicles, and that the rebels controlled the rest of the capital after two days of fierce fighting, The Associated Press reported.

Neither rebel claim was able to be independently verified.

(HT: Martha Heinemann Bixby)

Tags: human rights civil war

About the editor:

Anthony Clark Arend

Professor

Commentary and analysis at the intersection of international law and politics.

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