Chadian rebels said on Monday they withdrew voluntarily from Chad’s capital overnight, but it was unclear if they succumbed to the force of helicopter gun ships and tanks deployed by government forces.
Dozens of civilians have been wounded in fighting that began when rebels trying to oust President Idriss Deby entered the capital on Saturday. The violence threatens peacekeeping and aid operations intended to stabilize a region that borders the war-ravaged Darfur region of Sudan.
Rebel spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah told The Associated Press we decided to retreat to give the population a chance to get out.
Chad’s Foreign Minister Amad Allam-Mi said on Radio France Internationale, Sudan does not want this force because it would open a window on the genocide in Darfur.
Why did the intervention happen now? Sarkozy’s top aide, Claude Gueant, asked on Europe-1 radio. It was the last moment before the arrival of EUFOR, which was starting to be put in place for Sudan to reach its goal, to try to liquidate the regime of Idriss Deby.
Sudan has repeatedly denied any involvement. We would like to stress that Sudan does not provide any assistance to any side in Chad, Sudan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadeq said in a statement Sunday. Any developments in Chad reflect on Sudan and any instability there would have a negative impact on Sudan.
The statement from the UN’s Ban said that he appeals to all countries in the region to respect the inviolability of international borders and to prevent any incursions from being launched from within their territory.
The violence endangers a $300 million global aid operation supporting millions in the Central African nation.
Rebel spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah said the rebels also had taken a second strategic town, south-eastern Am Timan, some days ago.
In N’Djamena, Koulamallah claimed Deby was trapped at his presidential palace, surrounded by tanks and armoured vehicles, and that they controlled the rest of the city after two days of fierce fighting.
Nobody can say who will win, said a French military spokesman, Capt. Christophe Prazuck. France, the former colonial power, has a long-standing military presence in Chad and was evacuating hundreds of foreigners from the country.
France offered to take Deby out of Chad, Defence Minister Herve Morin said Sunday. France has clearly offered support to Idriss Deby by telling him that if he felt threatened, in danger, that we would try to get him out, he told France-Inter radio.
Deby came to power through a rebel force that seized N’Djamena in 1990.
A foreign aid worker described the scene in N’Djamena as bloody and chaotic with bodies littering the streets and looters breaking into shops during lulls in the fighting. Gunfire could be heard coming from the area around the presidential palace, said the aid worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with reporters.
The death toll from the fighting was not known. But the French organization Medecins sans Frontieres, or Doctors without Borders, reported they had operated on about 50 wounded people, only one a combatant, since Saturday at a hospital in the capital. A spokesman in Paris said the Chadian Red Cross had told MSF doctors that they had counted about 200 wounded. The civilians had been hit by stray bullets, MSF said.
Hundreds of people are fleeing the fighting, crossing the Chari River to Kousseri, in neighbouring Cameroon, the UN’s refugee agency said. Its spokeswoman Helene Caux said at least 400 had crossed and people are still coming. She said her agency needs to confirm the refugees are civilians with no fighters among them.
Koulamallah, reached on a satellite telephone, confirmed that looters had wrecked the national radio station, which has been off the air since Saturday. He said rebels controlled the station as well as both strategic bridges straddling the Chari River. Koulamallah said he was speaking from the main Chari Bridge, behind the presidential palace.
The rebels arrived Friday on the capital’s outskirts in about 250 pickup trucks mounted with machine guns after a three-day push across the desert from Chad’s eastern border with Sudan. They entered the city early Saturday, quickly spreading through the streets.
The French military put their number at between 1,000 and 1,500.
Morin, the French defence minister, said Deby has 2,000 to 3,000 troops. The rebels reported many soldiers were defecting. But Morin told Europe-1 radio Sunday that Deby still has command over practically all of the Chadian army.
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