At least 22 people, including nine soldiers and thirteen insurgents, died this Monday in a new clash between the rebel group Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic (CCMSR) and the Chadian Army in the north of the country, the Chadian Armed Forces.
“The fighting lasted more than four hours, but we ended up pushing back the attackers, who fled in the direction of (neighboring) Libya,” the commander in chief of operations in the area of the incident, Mahamat Djida, told EFE.
“We will redeploy our forces along the Libyan border to prevent these types of attacks,” he added.
The clash began at around 4:00 a.m. local time (3:00 GMT) in the town of Yebbibou, which belongs to the Chadian province of Tibesti.
A rebel leader, however, assured EFE that the insurgenets are still in Chadian territory and did not flee to Libya.
“We were the ones who defeated the national army, although we cannot take stock of the dead at this time,” said rebel captain Nouri Barki.
In Chad there are around twenty rebel groups that claim to fight against the country’s authorities.
In April 2021, President Idriss Déby Itno, who had led Chad with an iron fist since 1991, died during clashes between the Chadian Army and the rebel group Front for Alternation and National Concord in Chad (FACT, in French).
His 39-year-old son, General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, took power, annulling the Constitution and dissolving the Government and Parliament.
The country is immersed in a transition process for the restoration of democracy and the return to a civilian government, after the approval of a new Constitution last December and the appointment as prime minister of the until now opposition leader, Succès Masra. . EFE
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