Rebel forces cut Chad’s capital in two yesterday and laid siege to the palace where President Idriss Déby was overseeing a last effort to save his authoritarian 18-year rule.
Reports said bodies littered the streets of N’Djamena and looters were ransacking shops while government forces resisted the rebel assault with helicopter gunships and tanks.
But the government was evidently caught unprepared by the speed of the rebels’ move on the city after several thousand fighters in about 250 vehicles swept across the country in three days. Chad’s army chief of staff, Daoud Soumain, was killed defending the capital.
The assault has forced the European Union to delay the deployment of a 3,700-strong peacekeeping force, dominated by France, to protect hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees from Darfur now living in eastern Chad from cross-border raids, and may possibly prevent it taking place at all.
The government in N’Djamena accuses Sudan of backing the rebels to block the European intervention. A Darfuri rebel commander told Reuters yesterday that Sudanese government planes and vehicles were attacking the Chadian border town of Adré.
French officials said they offered to evacuate Déby but he had refused to leave. France has previously used its forces stationed in Chad to keep threats to Déby at bay but so far the 1,400-strong French military contingent has apparently concentrated on evacuating hundreds of foreigners.
The defense minister, Hervé Morin, said France will remain neutral in the conflict, perhaps reflecting the promised shift in Africa policy away from propping up unpopular client regimes.
The United Nations said it was evacuating all its personnel. US embassy staff and more than 200 Chinese oil workers were also flown out.
The French news agency reported French military sources as saying there were about 2,000 rebel fighters and that Déby had up to 3,000 troops. It also reported that government helicopters attacked a column of rebels moving towards the main radio station. French Mirage combat planes were seen flying over the city but apparently were not involved in the fighting.
Déby is a French-trained former fighter pilot who seized power in 1990 and has won three elections since but none were assessed to be free or fair. The most recent ballot, two years ago, was boycotted by the opposition.
He has lost the support of most Chadians in part because he made himself and his allies rich from the country’s recently acquired oil wealth. Chad is listed by Transparency International as among the most corrupt countries in the world.
Three years ago Déby changed the constitution to remain in office for a third term, prompting mass desertions from the army.