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18 dead in Chad fighting
02/03/2007 11:05 - (SA)
N'Djamena - At least 18 people were killed in fighting between rebels and militants allied to the Chadian government on Thursday near the Sudanese border, military sources said.
Fighting also broke out in the north between rebels and government troops but there were no reports of casualties.
Sources said 17 rebels and one government-allied militant were killed in the clashes near the Sudanese border in the northeast, after insurgents attacked the village of Birak about 50 km southeast of Guereda.
Gunmen from the United Front for Change (FUC), a former rebel group chiefly made up of members of the Tama ethnic community which has been allied to the government since December, responded to the attack, a FUC source said.
Chadian military officials dismissed the fighting as a "settling of scores" between rival ethnic groups in the area, where tensions have soared due to the spillover of communal violence from Sudan's eastern Darfur region.
'A dawn attack'
In the north of the country near the Libyan border, about 50 rebels launched a dawn attack on an army garrison but took flight after stealing three vehicles, according to military sources.
Military and rebel sources confirmed the incident but neither was able to provide details on casualties.
The attack was claimed by the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad, one of the central African country's oldest rebel groups which split into rival factions in 2002.
A spokesperson for the group said the militants who launched the attack wanted to join the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD), the main rebel group currently fighting the Deby government.
The fighting highlights mounting instability in the border region between Chad, the Central African Republic and Sudan. Chad and Sudan accuse each other of supporting and harbouring rebel movements.
UN gravely concerned
The United Nations has expressed grave concern for more than 90 000 displaced Chadian villagers and 232 000 Darfur refugees in eastern Chad.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has recommended 11 000 peacekeepers be sent to Chad and the Central African Republic to help protect vulnerable civilians.
Deby had given the go-ahead for the UN deployment in November but on Wednesday his government refused permission for UN military forces to deploy along its border with Sudan.
N'Djamena said it would however welcome a "civilian force composed of gendarmes and police" to help protect refugees from Sudan's neighbouring Darfur province.
The United Nations says about 200 000 people have died in the Darfur fighting and 2.5 million have been displaced since 2003.
- AFP
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