Chad: Rebels Enter Capital

2 February 2008
allAfrica.com

Rebel forces entered N'Djamena on Saturday and fighting was reported around the presidential palace, but government representatives denied the capital had fallen.

The BBC reported that although rebels said they had surrounded the palace, Chad's ambassador to Ethiopia, insisted that President Idriss Deby Itno  was "fine." A witness told the BBC that army tanks were burning in the streets.

Rebel columns have been reported as advancing on the capital for some days. Rebel spokesman Abakar Tollimi told Agence France Presse that they now controlled the city, although there were some "pockets of resistance".

The Associated Press reported that Chad's ambassador in Addis Ababa, Cherif Mahamat Zene, told the agency: "The head of state is fine in his palace ... It's true that there are some rebels who have entered the city, but to say the city has fallen is false."

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