Chadian rebels on Thursday entered the eastern town of Biltine in the latest move of their hit-and-run military campaign against President Idriss Déby, a rebel leader and government military sources said.
They said a column of vehicles belonging to the rebel Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) entered the town, the capital of the eastern Biltine prefecture, without encountering any serious resistance from government forces.
Biltine borders on Sudan’s conflict-torn western region of Darfur, where tens of thousands of people have been killed in political and ethnic conflict since 2003.
”There was some ANT [Chadian National Army] presence [in Biltine town], but they did not defend at all — they fled,” UFDD leader Mahamat Nouri told Reuters by satellite phone.
”The rebels entered Biltine this morning with more than 100 vehicles and heavy equipment,” a government military source, who asked not to be named, said.
Over the last year, several rebel groups have fought a low-intensity war against Déby’s forces in the desert, mountains and scrubland of east Chad, occasionally striking further west. Rebels raided the capital, N’Djamena, in April but were repulsed.
In the last two weeks, the anti-Déby rebels briefly occupied the main eastern city of Abeche and several other eastern towns, including Biltine, pulling back as soon as government forces moved against them in strength.
Déby’s government accuses neighbouring Sudan of backing the rebels, a charge denied by Khartoum. — Reuters