100s hurt in Ndjamena clashes

2008-02-03 16:09

Paris - Fighting in Chad's capital Ndjamena has left hundreds wounded, mainly civilians hit by stray bullets, the aid group Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) said on Sunday.

Isabelle Defourny, head of MSF operations in Chad, told AFP an MSF team in one Ndjamena hospital had treated 48 wounded people on Saturday alone, "only one of them a combattant".

Citing information from the Chadian Red Cross, Defourny added that another hospital was dealing with about 200 wounded people amid a lack of doctors and surgeons.

Contacted by AFP from Paris, she said MSF teams were unable to say how many people had been killed in the fighting between government forces and rebels.

Those taken to hospital, she said, had suffered "wounds, mostly from stray bullets".

A second day of fierce fighting rocked the Chad capital on Sunday as rebels surrounded President Idriss Deby in his palace and hundreds of foreigners fled the country.

With international aid organisations reporting bodies in the streets and looting in the capital, anti-tank and automatic weapons fire was heard around the presidential palace, where Deby has been holed up since Friday.

Rebels also mounted an attack on the eastern town of Adre, on the border with Sudan, reportedly with support from Sudanese warplanes.

- AFP