ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - In a rushed meeting held last night, The AU Peace and Security Council released a statement condemning the rebel attacks on the capital of Chad “as an unacceptable attempt to overthrow the current Government through unconstitutional means.”

The AU Council urged the government of Chad to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict through dialogue with political factions.

Rebels and government forces battled with attack helicopters, tanks and heavy weapons in N’djamena Thursday morning, and President Idriss Deby later declared he had fought off the second attempt to overthrow him in a month.

The pre-dawn attack on N’djamena demonstrated how little control Deby has outside his capital in a tumultuous part of the world, where rebel groups cruise across the desert at will.

In three days, rebels from the United Front for Change drove 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) in pickups from their bases on the border with Sudan’s troubled Darfur region and launched the major attack, this with just weeks to go before presidential elections.

Troops were waiting on the outskirts of the capital. Within hours, Deby declared victory on state-run radio and declared the rebel column destroyed.

Few in the country were assured that the fight for control of Chad was over.

Scores of defectors from the Chadian army have joined rebel groups since October in their bid to overthrow Deby, who himself seized power in a 1990 coup and has seen his authority undermined by violence in neighboring Sudan and an apparent struggle for control of newly discovered oil reserves in Chad.

The troubles in Chad have revived fears that the Darfur conflict could undermine the entire region.

On March 14, dissident troops attempted to overthrow Deby, and loyalist forces arrested more than 100 people for their alleged involvement in the attempted coup, which took place while Deby was out of the country.

Chad, an arid, landlocked country about three times the size of France, has been wracked by violence for most of its history, with more than 30 years of civil war since independence from France in 1960 and different small-scale insurgencies since 1998.

Chad accuses neighboring Sudan of backing the latest rebellion, a charge Sudan rejects.

Sudan backed Deby in his 1990 rebellion against former President Hissene Habre, but relations between Deby and Sudan have cooled.

Many observers see the new rebellion as a direct result of the fighting in Darfur, from where more than 200,000 refugees fled and sought protection in Chad.

The Sudanese government has accused Chad of supporting the Darfur rebels, while Deby has sought to mediate in the stalled Darfur peace process.

Rights groups have said Chadian and Sudanese militias in Darfur have launched frequent cross-border raids, killing Chadian civilians.

Deby has been accused by Chadians of doing too little to help Sudanese in Darfur who share ethnic links with many Chadians.

Deby said on state-radio Thursday that the men who attacked the capital were mercenaries paid by Sudan to overthrow him before he can hold elections May 3.

The path to power in Chad via Darfur is something Deby knows well. He launched his 1990 rebellion from Darfur.

Thursday’s fighting began before dawn, with residents in eastern neighborhoods waking to heavy gunfire.

Later, Chadian attack helicopters fired rockets at rebel positions around the capital and tank fire and mortar rounds echoed through the city as government troops attempted to hold off the rebels.

An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of three rebels in the streets of N’djamena, and residents reported seeing many other corpses in the streets.

A government spokesman said he did not immediately have a death toll.

France sent 150 troops Wednesday to bolster its contingent of about 1,200 already in Chad to protect about 1,500 French citizens there, the French Defense Ministry said in a statement in Paris.

The AU Peace and Security Council also condemned the “incursions of armed elements into Sudanese refugee camps in Chad, and other acts contrary to international humanitarian law.”

Source: AP

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