Word: chadness
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...Chad, the scene was all too familiar. Cannon and machine-gun fire echoed through the streets of N'Djamena, the dusty riverside capital of the north-central African nation. Days of violent combat turned the city, which once had a population of 193,000, into a smoke-shrouded battlefield. By week's end, in spite of two abortive ceasefires, hundreds were dead, many of them civilians caught in the crossfire. Some 600 foreigners, including U.S. Ambassador Donald Norland, and up to 30,000 of Chad's 4.5 million people had fled the war-torn country...
...ended an uneasy truce between warring guerrilla armies. The principal antagonists are two rival leaders who are members of Chad's own central government: President Goukouni Oueddei and Defense Minister Hissene Habré. The two ex-soldiers once fought as Muslim allies during the country's 14-year civil war. Now they are locked in a personal power struggle, with their respective forces (Oueddei's 6,800; Habré's 5,000) shelling each other's urban strongholds...
Armed largely by Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the northern-based Muslim guerrillas had succeeded last March in ousting President Félix Malloum, one of the southern Christians who have monopolized the government since Chad received its independence from France in 1960. Muslim Leaders Oueddei and Habré have since shared power in an eleven-faction alliance marked by mutual suspicion and hostility...
...Paris, the Soviets got the impression that they could ride roughshod over the West. The French feel that Washington does not fully appreciate their efforts in seeking to contain Moscow-inspired expansionism in Africa, a role that has earned them the sobriquet "the West's Cubans." In Chad, Mauritania, Zaire and, last month in Tunisia, the French moved quickly to give military support to governments that were threatened by externally sponsored subversion...
...consequence of the attack was the sudden appearance of a formidable Tunisian supporter: France. The French keep a fatherly eye on many of their onetime colonies and protectorates in Africa: last year, for example, Paris dispatched troops to help Chad put down a Libya-backed rebellion. Shortly after last week's clash in Gafsa, three French Navy warships-a cruiser, a frigate and an escort vessel -slipped out of their Mediterranean base at Toulon. The government claimed they were headed for maneuvers near Crete, but officials suggested that the ships would first "show themselves" off the Tunisian coast...