Chadian capital 'calm'
2006-04-14 10:20
N'Djamena - N'Djamena appeared calm on Friday, the day after clashes between government forces and rebels seeking to oust President Idriss Deby Itno, an AFP reporter in the Chadian capital said.
Forces loyal to Deby, identifiable by their red ribbons, were deployed in various parts of the city, in particular around the presidential palace, but the number of military vehicles deployed was smaller than the day before.
Businesses were open and taxis running as normal. The French school, which had closed "provisionally" on Wednesday, was also open.
The authorities said that they had repelled the assault by rebels on the outskirts of the capital and also claimed to be in control of the town of Adre in the east of the country near the border with Sudan where, according to humanitarian sources, fighting had ended Thursday evening.
Humanitarian sources said the fighting in N'Djamena had left several pepople dead and at least 250 injured while the clashes in Adre took five lives and resulted in 60 injured.
Chad has accused neighboring Sudan of engineering the offensive by rebels of the United Front for Change (FUC), though this has been denied by Khartoum.
The UN Security Council and UN chief Kofi Annan on Thursday strongly condemned the rebel offensive and urged Khartoum and N'Djamena not to conduct hostile activities against each other.