Rebels attacked a town in remote eastern Chad near the border with Sudan on Sunday but government forces repelled the assault and were back in control, the government said on Monday.
”The rebels infiltrated the town of Goz Beida in the east of Chad at around 4pm [local time]. They were pushed back by the Chadian national army,” Communication Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor told Reuters by telephone.
He had no immediate details on casualties.
Fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region, which has killed tens of thousands of people since 2003 and displaced more than two million, has often spilled over into Chad, where several rebel groups are fighting to topple President Idriss Déby.
Goz Beida lies just over 100km from the border with Darfur and is home to thousands of displaced civilians.
Chadian rebels attacked the capital N’djamena in April in an assault launched from the east but the rebel coalition has since splintered along rival ethnic and political lines. — Reuters