NAIROBI, Kenya — Chadian rebels said today they had voluntarily withdrawn from Chad’s capital overnight, but it was unclear whether they had succumbed to the helicopter gunships and tanks deployed by government forces.
A rebel spokesman, Abderaman Koulamallah, told The Associated Press, “We decided to retreat to give the population a chance to get out.”
On Sunday, tanks rolled through N’Djamena, turning the streets into a battle zone between the government and the rebels. Fighting also raged in an area where about 420,000 refugees live near the border with Darfur.
Chad and its former colonizer, France, accused Sudan of masterminding the coup attempt in the oil-rich Central African nation. Sudan has denied any involvement.
Hundreds of rebels penetrated the capital of Chad on Saturday.
The violence has endangered a $300 million global aid operation supporting millions of people in Chad, a country about three times the size of California. It also has delayed the deployment of a European Union peacekeeping mission to both Chad and neighboring Central African Republic.
France accused Sudan of wanting to crush President Idriss Deby’s regime ahead of the arrival of the EU force, which is to operate along the volatile border with Darfur.
The force was to be based in the area of the key eastern town of Adre, which rebels said they seized Sunday. The government said it had repelled the attack. Adre, near the border with Darfur, is a humanitarian hub surrounded by camps with about 420,000 refugees from Darfur and Chadians displaced by the violence.
Chadian Gen. Mahamat Ali Abdallah Nassour claimed that Sudanese troops were involved and called it a “declaration of war” from Sudan.
In a statement Sunday, Sudan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadeq said, “We would like to stress that Sudan does not provide any assistance to any side” in Chad.
The U.S. Embassy in N’Djamena said Sunday it was temporarily closing and relocating all of its operations and remaining staff to the airport. It had authorized the departure of its nonessential staff. The United Nations also said it was temporarily evacuating its staff.
French soldiers in N’Djamena began evacuating foreigners Saturday night, and nearly 400 had left by midday Sunday, said a French military spokesman, Capt. Christophe Prazuck.
The death toll from the fighting was not known. But the French organization Medecins sans Frontieres reported they had operated on about 50 wounded people — only one a combatant — since Saturday at a hospital in the capital. A spokesman in Paris said the Chadian Red Cross had told MSF doctors that they had counted about 200 wounded. The civilians had been hit by stray bullets, MSF said.
