Chadian troops clashed on Thursday with rebels from neighboring Sudan, each side claiming victory in a first direct confrontation that left aid agencies and traders fearing the worst.
In a statement broadcast on national radio, the army claimed 125 rebels and 21 soldiers were killed, 30 government troops wounded and 152 rebels taken prisoner. Several vehicles were also destroyed or captured.
“The first ground clashes have just taken place at Am-Deressa, 10km south of Am-Dam” in eastern Chad, Chadian Communications Minister Mahamat Hissene said.
“The government forces gained the upper hand and mopping up operations are continuing,” Hissene said.
Interim defense minister Adoum Younousmi spoke earlier in the day of “heavy” casualties from “fierce” combat.
Rebel alliance spokesman Adberaman Koulamallah said that fighting began at 5am, “was very violent” and “lasted for hours.”
He said that the battle “turned in our favor. Government forces are completely routed. We occupy Am-Dam. The objective is still [the capital] Ndjamena.”
Am-Dam is 110km north of Goz Beida and more than 100km south of Abeche, the two towns used as bases by most relief agencies working in eastern Chad to help 450,000 refugees and displaced people.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees on Thursday said it had pulled all but two of 20 staff out of camps for 60,000 people because of the instability by the insurgency since it began on Monday.
The UN World Food Programme took a similar decision in the same region on Wednesday.
“All the other humanitarian agencies are going to do the same” because the situation is “too volatile and too unstable,” said Serge Male, representing the High Commissioner for Refugees in Chad.
Chad has accused Sudan of backing the rebel assault, which began with the ink barely dry on a Sunday peace pact between the fractious neighbors brokered in Doha by Qatar and Libya.
Koulamallah said on Thursday that the rebels advancing across the hot, arid south of the central African country had “more than a thousand” four-by-four vehicles, but said they had been attacked each day by helicopters and high-flying bombers.
The government has so far stated that it carried out one air attack.
The military activity — which echoes a push in February last year when rebels battled their way to the gates of the presidential palace before being beaten back — has also raised fears among Ndjamena traders.
“Memories of what happened in February 2008 come back into my head,” said Elise Mariam, a fish seller in Ndjamena, one of thousands who fled the city then. “Since I heard that war is back, I’ve been really frightened.”
“I abandoned everything and lost it all. I don’t want to live through that again ... The international community should act fast,” he said.
“We sow injustice and we harvest war,” said civil servant Hassan Kuerge. “The international community should put pressure on Deby and his brothers [the political and armed opposition] to have them make peace.”
Chadian Interior and Public Security Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bashir has accused Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir of ordering “mercenaries” to attack Chad and vowed that the rebels would be wiped out.
Peace between Chad and Sudan is regarded as essential to any lasting settlement to a six-year-old uprising in Sudan’s western Darfur region.
The UN Security Council was to meet yesterday to discuss the crisis, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including