Chadian rebels test themselves against army at Libya border
Rebels in northern Chad attacked government troops at the border with Libya, sources said, but the government denied an attack had occurred.
A fledgling rebel movement, the Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic, seeks to overthrow President Idriss Deby, as Chad tries to prevent the influx of extremists fleeing the Libyan conflict.
Mr Deby has been an ally of the West in the fight against militants in West Africa. He has faced rebellions since taking power in 1990 at the head of an insurrection that toppled then president Hissene Habre, but there has been relative calm since 2009.
The new militant group, which claims it has 4,500 fighters, was founded in 2014 and fought its first battle against government forces this month in the mining town of Kouri Bougoudi.
Its ranks include former rebels from the Darfur region of neighbouring Sudan and former political allies of Habre, who is serving a life sentence in a Senegalese prison for crimes against humanity. The militants say their fighters attacked Chadian soldiers again in Kouri Bougoudi on Tuesday morning.
“The valiant fighters attacked the enemy once again in the most brutal manner,” it said. “The enemy preferred to flee in total disarray, leaving behind sheep carcasses and other heaps of food.”
Security Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir denied that the rebels had attacked the army, but two Chadian military sources said there had been fighting. There was no information about casualties.
The rebellion is the latest security headache for Chad, which closed the border with Libya in January. It also faces threats from groups with links to Al Qaeda and ISIS, which operate across the lawless, semi-arid Sahel band, and from Boko Haram militants in Nigeria.
Mr Deby, 66, has won election five times since coming to power, often amid accusations of fraud. Parliament approved a new constitution in April that expands his powers and could allow him to remain in office until 2033.