N'DJAMENA (Agencies)
The French and U.S. embassies in Chad were preparing their nationals there for possible evacuation on Saturday, as rebels fighting to overthrow President Idriss Deby battled their way into the capital N'Djamena and were heading for the presidential palace.
Rebels with a column of 300 vehicles have closed in on the capital of the central African oil producing country in their most determined offensive in two years. They fought confused battles with Deby's troops on Friday northeast of the city.
"Rebels are headed for the palace and are about two blocks from here. The rebels are winning," a foreign resident told Reuters in an email sent from the compound of a western embassy in N'Djamena, adding she could hear heavy weapons fire.
France's mission instructed its citizens to assemble at three designated sites in the capital, while the U.S. embassy asked those American nationals who wanted to be evacuated to come to the embassy immediately.
Some 1,500 French citizens live in Chad, 85 percent of them in Ndjamena.
"Fighting between government forces and rebels has started at about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Ndjamena," a military source earlier told AFP, saying there was more or less an equal number of forces on both sides.
"The fighting is taking place at the northern entrance to the city," confirmed rebel spokesman Abakar Tollimi by satellite telephone.
He said the government troops were "scattering", adding of President Idriss Deby: "He will fall today, it's sure."
A Chadian opposition website reported that the rebels, who have called on Deby to accept a power-sharing deal or face an attack on N'Djamena, had occupied Djermaya, 30 km (20 miles) from the capital, and were pressing on towards the city.
Chad says the rebels, who advanced rapidly to N'Djamena in the west after crossing from the eastern border with Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, were armed and backed by the Sudanese government. Khartoum routinely denies such accusations.
Both sides claimed victory in Friday's confused fighting. It was the rebels' most threatening advance on N'Djamena since 2006, when government troops drove out a rebel column that entered the city.
France on Friday reinforced its military contingent stationed in its former colony, and the clashes outside the capital forced the European Union to delay the deployment of a peacekeeping force in eastern Chad. |
