UN to evacuate staff from Chad
2006-04-11 20:00
N'djamena - Rebels stepped up attacks in east Chad on Tuesday, just three weeks ahead of the country's presidential elections, seizing the town of Mongo.
Chadian military said rebels from the United Front for Change (FUC) took control of the town, 400km east of the country's capital N'Djamena.
Moussa Issa, advisor to the FUC leader Mahamat Nour, said: "The Chadian army put up a fight, but we now control the town."
The attack came as the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was preparing to evacuate its staff from the region, following reports FUC rebels had seized a refugee camp near the town of Goz Beida on Monday.
Reports said the rebels killed a security official and took nine UN staff hostage.
The rebels denied this but confirmed they had seized the village of Koukou, 50km southeast of Goz Beida.
A UNHCR spokesperson said: "The situation in Goz Beida is calm but we have no news on Koukou or the Goz Amir camp because there is no way of contacting them."
The spokesperson said the Goz Amir camp, home to 17 000 Sudanese who fled the civil war in Darfur, had been invaded by rebels during the Goz Beida offensive.
The FUC took control of the Haraz Manguegne military garrison in the south of the country near the border with the Central African Republic on Sunday.
On Tuesday, a military source said the garrison was still in rebel hands.