Security forces in Chad successfully stopped armed militants from storming the presidential compound in the city, N’Djamena, killing at least 19 people.
The botched attack on Wednesday night claimed the lives of 18 of the 24 terrorists, according to the authorities, and one security force member was also killed in the ensuing gunfights. “There were 18 dead and six injured” among the assailants, according to Abderaman Koulamallah, the foreign minister and government spokesperson for Chad, “and we suffered one death and three injured, one of them seriously.”
Hours after the shooting, Koulamallah, surrounded by soldiers and visibly armed, appeared in a video assuring that “The situation is completely under control… the destabilization attempt was put down.” The attack occurred during an official visit by China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Chad. Wang Yi had met with President Mahamat Idriss Deby and other senior officials just hours before the shooting began.
President Deby was present in the presidential complex at the time of the attack, according to Koulamallah. Deby assumed power after rebels killed his father, Idriss Deby, in 2021, who had ruled Chad since a coup in the early 1990s.
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While an initial security source told AFP that the attackers were members of Boko Haram, Koulamallah later suggested that they were “probably not” rebels, describing them as drunken “Pieds Nickeles,” a reference to hapless crooks from a French comic. Another security source told Reuters the incident was likely an “attempted terrorist attack,” stating, “Individuals in three vehicles attacked the military camps around the president’s office, but the army neutralised them.” Residents in the area reported hearing intense gunfire.
The attack occurred less than two weeks after Chad conducted a contested general election, which the government hailed as a key step towards ending military rule. The election was marked by low voter turnout and opposition allegations of fraud, as the opposition had called for a boycott, leaving the field open for candidates aligned with the president. Chad, a former French colony rich in oil resources but one of the poorest countries in Africa, recently ended defense and security agreements with France, which they termed “obsolete.” France had stationed approximately 1,000 military personnel in the country, who are currently in the process of being withdrawn.
This follows France being driven out of three Sahelian countries—Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger—governed by military governments hostile to Paris. Additionally, Senegal and Ivory Coast have requested that France vacate military bases on their territory.
Source: Al Jazeera
