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Hundreds Die In Chad Clashes

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By TOM MALITI, The Associated Press

Published: February 6, 2008

N'DJAMENA, Chad - Hundreds of civilians have died in fierce fighting between rebels and government forces in Chad's capital, Red Cross officials said Tuesday, as insurgents agreed to a cease-fire and their momentum faded. Former colonial power France threatened to enter the fight to support the government.

Chad's government told the French military it still was fighting rebels using "air power" outside of N'Djamena, the capital, according to French military spokesman Cmdr. Christophe Prazuck.

Chief rebel leader Mahamat Nouri charged they were being bombarded by French Mirage jets - but France said it had not yet gone on the attack.
French intervention in the past helped stave off a major rebel attack in this oil-rich country on President Idriss Deby, accused by insurgents of corruption and embezzling millions in oil revenue.

Tuesday, bodies lay rotting under a tropical sun in N'Djamena, according to a local reporter who left his home Tuesday for the first time since the rebels entered Saturday.

Most downtown shops and buildings have been looted. Farther from the center, the state broadcasting station and the parliament building were stripped by rampaging looters.

Chad Red Cross officials said that hundreds of civilians have died, most of them from bullet wounds. More than 1,000 people have been wounded, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

Soldiers barred the two bridges across the Chari River that divides N'Djamena from neighboring Cameroon on Tuesday afternoon, blocking the escape route for hundreds of civilians, and possibly rebels.

As many as 20,000 people have fled across the river, the U.N. refugee agency said. The Red Cross said the number of those fleeing grew steadily earlier Tuesday, and could have reached 30,000.

Chad is in a violent swath of Africa that is home to hundreds of thousands of refugees and borders Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region. The U.N.'s World Food Program said the violence could disrupt food delivery to 420,000 Darfur refugees and Chadians displaced by violence.

Chad accuses Sudan of being behind the latest violence in Chad to prevent Europe from deploying a peacekeeping force to the border region, a mission Sudan has resisted.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's top aide has echoed that charge. Chad and Sudan have long exchanged charges and denials of supporting the other's rebels.

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