Chad has claimed victory over rebel forces after two days of intense fighting in the east of the country.
The military said it had killed over 200 soldiers from the rebel Union of Resistance Forces (UFR) in fights near the town of Am Dam, which lies between Goz Beida and Abeche — two towns used as bases for humanitarian agencies helping over 400,000 refugees from Sudan’s restive Darfur Province.
More than 20 government soldiers were also killed, the government said late on Saturday.
There was no confirmation of the claims.
Government soldiers backed by helicopters and jet fighters battled several columns of rebel forces, numbering 50 to 100 vehicles each, said the UN, which condemned the rebel push.
The UFR had earlier said its goal was to reach the capital N’Djamena and overthrow Chadian President Idriss Deby.
Chad last Tuesday accused Sudan of sending the armed groups over the border just two days after the feuding countries signed a reconciliation agreement in Qatar.
Sudan quickly denied the allegation.
The two countries only resumed diplomatic ties in November after cutting them last May. The neighbors have long accused each other of conducting proxy wars through rebel groups.
Chad and Sudan signed the agreement, brokered by Qatar and Libya, in Doha last Sunday.
On Saturday Deby said Chad lacked confidence in the African Union’s (AU) ability to resolve the crisis with Sudan, the first time an African leader questioned the body’s authority in its six-year history.
The president also said his government would reevaluate its relations with Sudan and it began by ordering the closure of Sudanese cultural centers in Chad. He said the government would take over schools run by Sudanese in Chad.
“The government should evaluate together with friendly countries our relations with the African Union seeing its inability to find suitable solutions to the Chadian-Sudanese crisis,” Deby told a meeting of political leaders, including key opposition chiefs.
“Chad should consider withdrawing its confidence in the African Union and hand over the resolution of the crisis only to the United Nations,” the president said.
Deby’s statement indirectly suggests Chad is considering withdrawing from the AU, which would be a first in the organization that was formed in July 2002. Morocco withdrew its membership from the AU’s predecessor, the Organization of African Unity, after the continental body gave observer status to the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
The UN Security Council on Friday condemned last week’s rebel attacks in eastern Chad, saying they came from outside the country.
Chadian rebels have sought to overthrow Deby for more than three years. The rebellion followed disagreements within Deby’s inner circle about how to handle the Darfur conflict. Deby and many of his top military officers come from eastern Chad and have relatives living in Darfur.
The group fighting Deby — the Force for the Union of Resistance Forces — is led by his nephew Timane Erdimi, formerly in charge of oil affairs in the president’s office before falling out with him.
Eastern Chad is a temporary home to about 300,000 refugees who have fled Sudan’s Darfur conflict. The region also has camps for 187,000 Chadians displaced by fighting locally and in Darfur.
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
US ELECTION: Polls show that the result is likely to be historically tight. However, a recent Iowa poll showed Harris winning the state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020 US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense US election campaign entered its final hours. The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on election day today. Trump predicted a “landslide,” while Harris told a raucous rally in must-win Michigan that “we have momentum — it’s
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
TIGHT CAMPAIGN: Although Harris got a boost from an Iowa poll, neither candidate had a margin greater than three points in any of the US’ seven battleground states US Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the final days before the election, as she and former US president and Republican presidential nominees make a frantic last push to win over voters in a historically close campaign. The first lines Harris spoke as she sat across from Maya Rudolph, their outfits identical, was drowned out by cheers from the audience. “It is nice to see you Kamala,” Harris told Rudolph with a broad grin she kept throughout the sketch. “And I’m just here to remind you, you got this.” In sync, the two said supporters
RSS