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| Africa Horn |
| Chad rebels step up attacks |
| 2006-04-12 |
| Chadian rebels have raided the town of Mongo, about 400 kilometres east of the capital N'Djamena, in their boldest attack so far in a campaign to disrupt elections next month. President Idriss Deby's Government, which accuses neighbouring Sudan of supporting the insurgents, says the raiders have succeeded in entering Mongo. But it denies a claim by a rebel group that its fighters have captured the town. Information Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor says government forces have repulsed the latest rebel strike in the landlocked central African oil producer. The raid on Mongo, a regional administrative centre halfway between N'Djamena and the Sudan border, is the closest to the capital so far by rebels who have vowed to try to oust Mr Deby, who is standing for re-election in a May 3 poll. The attack follows a series of hit-and-run raids in the last three days in which mobile columns of rebels travelling in pick-up trucks have attacked government forces in the east, briefly occupying at least one village and a refugee camp. Mr Doumgor has given no details of casualties in the Mongo attack but says the assailants have caused "some damage". "These strikes are aimed at sowing panic among the population and above all at disrupting the ongoing presidential election campaign," he said. The rebel United Front for Democratic Change (FUC), which has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in eastern Chad since Sunday, says in statements posted on a Chad opposition website that it has captured Mongo and nearby Bitkine. Mr Doumgor says the rebels control no towns in the country and FUC forces have in the past quickly withdrawn from towns and villages they initially claimed to have occupied. UPDATE: Chad's government says it has regained control of the town of Mongo, 400km (250 miles) east of the capital, after it was raided by rebels. The government had previously denied a claim by United Front for Change (Fuc) rebels that they had captured Mongo. The fighters opposed to President Idriss Deby say they are advancing towards the capital on three fronts. Mongo is the nearest the rebels have come to N'Djamena, which is tense, since the six-month rebellion began. "Since yesterday afternoon our defence and security forces took total control of the town of Mongo," an unamed military official told Reuters news agency. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 (melbrooks/on) Mongo? Mongo santamaria!! (melbrooks/off) Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2006-04-12 07:00 |
| #1 I was just about to post this under the headline - Chad is Getting Fuc*ed |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-04-12 01:21 |