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Chad: Govt Evacuates Citizens After Chad Coup Attempt
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BuaNews (Tshwane)
4 February 2008
Posted to the web 4 February 2008
Lavinia Mahlangu
Pretoria
Fifteen South Africans are to be evacuated from Chad after a failed coup d'etat in the central African state at the weekend.
Chadian soldiers thwarted an attempted coup by rebels who tried to storm the presidential palace on Sunday. According to regional news agencies, the assault marked the second day of fighting in what is the second attempted coup against President Idriss Deby in as many years.
South Africa's Department of Foreign Affairs on Monday confirmed that the diplomatic mission in Chad was in contact with most of the 15 nationals, while Consular Services is in contact with their families. "The Department of Foreign Affairs is in contact with the French authorities who have agreed to assist with the evacuation of the 15 South Africans currently working in Chad," the department said in a statement.
"In this context our diplomatic mission in Chad is finalising arrangements for the successful evacuation of the South Africans." The department urged South African families who have relatives in Chad, but had not been contacted to call Consular Services at (012) 351-1000. The South African government has called on all parties to co-operate with the African Union-led mediation effort aimed at finding a lasting political solution in Chad.
The 15 nationals are reported to be employees of mining and cellular phone companies, based in the central African nation. The European Union announced Friday it was delaying the deployment of troops and equipment. The Saudi Press Agency reports that the wife and daughter of a Saudi employee at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Ndjamena were killed during a bomb attack on the Saudi ambassador's residence on Saturday.
At the time of the explosion, all of the mission's staff and their families were at the ambassador's residence, preparing for evacuation, the ministry spokesman told the SPA. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has already had to evacuate most of its staff from the town of Guereda in eastern Chad. The UNHCR made the decision following renewed tensions between the Government and rebels and "because of a series of armed attacks in the area against agency staff and aid workers with non-governmental organisations (NGOs)."
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, rebel attacks on the capital pose the biggest political threat. However it is the often unreported incursions into eastern Chad from Sudan and violent inter-communal fighting there that have caused the worst humanitarian fallout. The UN organ said at least 180 000 Chadians have left their homes in the last three years, many of them fleeing attacks by armed men on horseback who set entire villages aflame. In 1998, a rebellion broke out in northern Chad, and sporadically flares up despite several peace agreements between the government and rebels.
In 2005, new rebel groups emerged in western Sudan and have repeatedly attacked eastern Chad, despite the existence of peace agreements signed in December 2006 and October 2007. Power remains in the hands of an ethnic minority. Last year the Security Council authorised the deployment of a multi-dimensional UN presence in eastern Chad and north-eastern CAR.
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This deployment included a peacekeeping mission to be known as MINURCAT, which is set to stabilise the region. The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations is currently continuing its preparations to set up the mission.
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