Chad says army foils armed attack on presidential compound, killing 19 | news
The attack came just hours after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with government officials in the capital N’Djamena
At least 19 people have been killed in Chad, where security forces said they had stopped an attempt by armed fighters to attack the presidential compound in the capital N’Djamena.
The government said at least 18 of the 24 armed men were killed in a failed attack on the president’s office on Wednesday evening, and a member of the security forces was also killed in a gun battle.
Chad’s Foreign Minister and government spokesman Abdermane Kulamalla said, “The attackers killed 18 people and wounded six” and “we have one killed and three wounded, one of them seriously.”
Hours after the shooting, Koulamalla appeared in a video surrounded by soldiers and carrying a gun on his belt, saying, “The situation is completely under control… the attempt at destabilization has been foiled.”
The attack coincided with the official visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Chad.
Hours before the shooting began, Wang Yi had met with Chad’s President Mahamat Idriss Deby and other senior officials. According to Koulamallah, Déby was in the presidential compound at the time of the attack.
Deby seized power in 2021 after rebels assassinated his father, longtime president Idris Deby. The elder Déby had ruled Chad since a coup in the early 1990s.
A security source told the French news agency AFP that the attackers were members of the Boko Haram armed group, but Koumalla later said they were “probably not” rebels, instead describing them as drunken “Pieds Nicolas” – a French comic. The characterization refers to the hapless scoundrel.
A security source also told Reuters news agency that the incident was possibly an “attempted terrorist attack”.
“People in three vehicles attacked military camps around the president’s office, but were shot down by the army,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
Residents in the area described hearing loud gunshots.
The attack comes less than two weeks after Chad held contested general elections that the government described as a significant step toward ending military rule, but which saw low turnout and the opposition alleged fraud.
The opposition’s call for voters to boycott the election left the field open for candidates aligned with the president.
The former French colony, which is rich in oil resources but one of Africa’s poorest countries, hosted France’s last military bases in the region called the Sahel, but at the end of November, a defense and security accord with Paris was scrapped. Finished it, called them. “obsolete”.
About 1,000 French military personnel were deployed in the country and the process of withdrawing them is underway. His departure came after France pulled out of three Sahelian countries ruled by military governments hostile to Paris: Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
Senegal and Ivory Coast have also asked France to vacate military bases in their territories.
