The government in Chad relaxed on Saturday its curfew in the capital N'Djamena, where at least 160 people were killed in weekend clashes when rebels tried to storm the presidential palace.
In the central town of Mongo meanwhile, 400km to the east, the rebel alliance that tried to topple Chadian President Idriss Deby last weekend spent a third day regrouping and planning their next move.
The government's strict curfew remained in place on citizens in the rest of the country, but people in N'Djamena are now allowed to leave their homes in the evenings, the interior ministry said.
On Thursday, following the attacks by rebels opposed to Deby, the government had banned all movements between 6:30pm and 6am. That has now been shortened to between midnight and 6am.
In Mongo, the rebels considered their options.
"Here everything is quiet. We are at Mongo where we are regrouping," Abderaman Koulamallah, a rebel alliance spokesman, said, adding: "We must lure the army far from its bases."
The fact that the government maintained the full curfew in the rest of Chad is a sign of the uncertainty still surrounding the intentions of the rebel alliance, which has united three factions against Deby.
"We had a strategy designed to quickly topple the regime," a rebel source said. "But when that didn't work we had to regroup to the rear, where we could more easily get our hands on some necessary fuel."
A military source said that an army convoy had left the capital on Friday heading east but no confrontation has yet been reported.
"We will continue to hunt them down," said General Mahamat Ali Abdallah, commander of government operations.
Abdallah accused the rebels of having pillaged Mongo -- a claim they rejected.
"We have called on civil servants to return to work, and we have put in place an administration committee in the town in collaboration with the local authorities," Koulamallah said.
Some observers believe the rebels may try and mount another offensive on the capital, but military sources doubt they have sufficient arms or fuel.
At the same time, it was far from clear whether Chad's armed forces have the means to inflict a decisive defeat on the rebels.
That task appeared to have become even more of a challenge after reports that reinforcements had arrived at the rebel camp from the east of the country.
Observers counted more than 200 all-terrain vehicles in and around Mongo.
These vehicles, capable of carrying up to 15 men as well as their weapons, ammunition and fuel, are an essential component of the rebel force, giving them the mobility they need in the country's unforgiving terrain.
In Paris, about a hundred people demonstrated the arrest by the Chadian authorities of four opposition figures, and denounced France for its support of Deby's regime.
In Bangui however, some 5,000 people demonstrated in support of the Chadian government and denounced the rebel forces.
Deby declared a "stunning victory" on Wednesday over rebel forces and said he was back in control, as Red Cross officials put the toll from weekend clashes at more than 160 dead.
"We have total control not only of the capital but of the country," Deby said at his first press conference since hundreds of insurgents poured into N'Djamena in a bid to overthrow his regime.
The fighting delayed a long-awaited EU peacekeeping force that was set to deploy in Chad to protect refugees from war-torn Darfur and others who have been displaced.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS