Gunmen temporarily captured a town in central Chad in an attempt to destabilise the country before next month’s presidential election, a government spokesperson said.
There were no casualties in Tuesday’s raid in Mongo, 400km east of the capital, N’djamena, said Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor, the communications minister and government spokesperson. He described the gunmen as mercenaries, which is the government’s term for rebels.
”This government has all the resources it needs to protect its territory,” he said.
The attack was the first deep inside Chad after several guerrilla strikes along the borders with Sudan and the Central African Republic. Scores of defectors from the Chadian army have joined rebel groups since October in their bid to overthrow President Idriss Deby.
The government has said rebel groups in Chad are actually mercenaries and militia working on behalf of the Sudanese government, a charge that Sudan denies.
On Monday, gunmen attacked a refugee camp housing 17 000 Sudanese refugees in south-eastern Chad and stole communications equipment from humanitarian workers, officials said. Doumgor blamed forces supported by the Sudanese government.
The Chad-Sudan border has been volatile since the outbreak of a rebellion in Sudan’s Darfur region sent an exodus of Sudanese refugees into Chad. Both countries accuse the other of harbouring insurgents and rebels.
Chad’s presidential election is scheduled for May 3. Deby seized power in a 1990 coup, but introduced multiparty politics in Chad in 1991 and went on to win elections in 1996 and 2001. Last year, Chadians voted to allow him to seek another term in office, although the opposition says the vote was rigged. — Sapa-AP