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Chad rebels 'learn a lesson'
18/02/2008 09:44 - (SA)
N'Djamena - Chad's three main rebel groups, after losing the battle for the capital, have vowed to learn the lessons of their defeat and select a common leader in their fight against President Idriss Deby Itno.
Assessing the causes of their rout in N'Djamena two weeks ago, the groups said they now recognised the need for a single leadership - despite the expected difficulties of uniting their fractious movements behind one.
"We have decided not to return to N'Djamena without having a single leadership," a spokesperson for the rebel alliance, Abderaman Koulamallah, said.
Under pressure from Sudan, which allegedly armed them, the groups had previously agreed to form a military alliance under a joint command, but without a common leader.
Political union
Koulamallah said a commission had now been set up comprising the leading members of the groups to "decide on a consensus leader as quickly as possible".
"We need to agree to a political union," said general Mahamat Nouri, leader of one of the rebel groups, the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD), who was believed to be eyeing the leadership post.
The rebel alliance seized large chunks of N'Djamena and surrounded Deby in the presidential palace on February 02-03, but government troops - given logistical and intelligence support by the French military - repulsed the fighters, who had since withdrawn to the southeast of the country.
Although they claimed officially that their forces were well co-ordinated during the assualt on N'Ddjamena, which began on January 28, some of those involved indicated that the three-headed leadership was one of the reasons for failure.
"One of the columns didn't really get involved," said one senior member of the Assembly of Forces for Change (RFC) group pointing to a UFDD-led operation that was supposed to bring supplies and reinforcements from the east of the country.
"They took far too much time. We had to abandon our positions in the city because we didn't have a single round of ammunition."
Search for single leader
According to him, the mix of soldiers from the three groups in battle columns also contributed to the failure of the offensive. "Some people responded to the head of their movements, but not the head of their column," he said.
During their retreat toward Chad's south-eastern border with Sudan, the rebels formed back into columns composed entirely of their own rebel groups, he said.
The search for a single leader to unify the rebel movement was likely to be a struggle however, as illustrated by an incident in N'Djamena.
"In N'Djamena we wanted to send out a radio message," said Nouri, "but we were unable to agree on which leader was going to read it out."
He added that "after the fall of the regime our objectives are different".
- AFP
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