Thousands of civilians fled Chad's capital N'Djamena yesterday
after rebel forces pulled back from a two-day assault, but the
rebels said they would attack again to try to topple President
Idriss Deby.
Deby's government, reeling from the latest strike on the city in
under two years, said it had beaten off more than 2,000 insurgents
who stormed into the riverside capital of the central African state
on Saturday, riding aboard armed pickup trucks.
But the rebels, who call Deby's 18-year rule corrupt and
dictatorial, warned N'Djamena's population to flee their homes.
They said their withdrawal from the city late on Sunday was
"tactical" and that they were regrouping for another attack.
"We're at the gates of the city," rebel spokesman Abderamane
Koullamalah told Radio France International (RFI).
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Jianchao said yesterday
that all the Chinese people remaining in N'djamena are safe, and
Chinese Ambassador to Chad Wang Yingwu is leading the remaining
staff of the Chinese Embassy to organize and assist an early
evacuation of the remaining Chinese citizens.
The Chinese embassies in Cameron and other neighboring countries
are also engaged actively in relocating the evacuated Chinese
citizens under the direction of the Foreign Ministry, Liu said.
Yesterday, residents said N'Djamena was relatively calm, but a
government helicopter flew overhead and sporadic detonations could
still be heard. Some people ventured cautiously out.
Government military vehicles moved around the city. Bodies of
dead civilians were visible in some streets, killed in two days of
chaotic fighting and widespread looting which badly damaged the
state radio building and the main market.
Residents said they feared another rebel assault. Rebel fighters
had gone from house to house in some areas, telling occupants to
leave because they planned to attack again.
A Reuters correspondent across the Logone-Chari river from the
city reported a flood of refugees streaming over the Ngueli bridge
into Cameroon.
"I saw one girl wounded from a stray bullet in the back. There
were children crying, almost all of them were frightened,"
Television correaspondent Emmanuel Braun said.
Local Cameroon authorities estimated some 15,000 people had fled
across the river to the small border town of Kousseri.
Chad's Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-mi said N'Djamena was under
the control of Deby's government forces. "The battle of N'Djamena
is over," he said, speaking to RFI from Addis Ababa where he had
attended an African Union summit.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres estimated that several
hundred people had been injured.
Chad says the rebels, who include some of Deby's former allies,
are backed by Sudan. Khartoum denies this and in turn accuses the
Chadians of supporting rebels in its Darfur region.
The rebel attack forced France to use its troops stationed in
its former colony to evacuate at least 700 French and other foreign
nationals from the landlocked oil-producing state.
It also forced the EU to delay the deployment of a EU
peacekeeping force (EUFOR) to eastern Chad to protect thousands of
refugees who have fled violence spilling over from the long-running
war in Sudan's Darfur region.
"We stopped it in the last few days in order to see how the
situation evolves on the ground," EU foreign policy chief Javier
Solana told reporters in Brussels. "The situation is still not
clear ... but we continue to maintain the operation alive."
An attack by anti-Deby forces on Sunday on the far eastern
border town of Adre opened a new front in the fighting. Chad's army
said it repulsed the assault which it said was made by a mixed
force of Sudanese army troops and rebels.
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(China Daily via Agencies February 5, 2008)
