Word: djamena
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...talkin-to-me?" swagger when seeking to intimidate political rivals, protesters and the French media. But it remains to be seen whether Sarkozy's snarl will prompt a retreat by hardened rebel fighters in Chad. Amid a lull in the battle for control of the Chadian capital of N'Djamena on Tuesday, Sarkozy responded to rebel threats of renewed violence by warning, "If France must do its duty, it will - let no one doubt that...
...rebel fighters who stormed N'Djamena Friday evening withdrew when formerly grounded Chadian Army helicopters attacked their trucks and positions in the capital. What they left in their wake bore witness to the intense and random nature of the violence. N'Djamena's main business street, the avenue Charles de Gaulle, was littered with destroyed cars, burned corpses, and the detritus of trees cut down by flurries of machine gun and rocket fire, according to eyewitnesses. Although initial reports described fighting limited to rebel and government forces, French aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières said...
...rebels claimed their fall back was merely a tactical move to resupply and organize a final push on the capital. Thousands of Chadian civilians flocked from N'Djamena Monday ahead of a feared resurgence in fighting in the coming hours or days. Rebel leaders pledged to finish off the government forces in N'Djamena once they'd regrouped, and threatened to attack an airbase French troops are using to airlift foreigners caught up in the fighting. The insurgents claim the airlifts served as cover for the rocket-firing Chadian army helicopters, which operate out of the same airstrip and that...
...rebels weren't the only ones loudly rattling their sabers during the lull. Chadian Foreign Affairs Minister Amad Allam-Mi triumphantly proclaimed insurgent forces "defeated" as he told Radio France International "the battle for N'Djamena is over." Echoing accusations voiced by other African regimes that the Chadian anti-government fighters are financed and trained by Khartoum, Allam-Mi warned that "if it's necessary for the security, defense, and integrity of Chad, we'll go all the way to Sudan" to wipe them...
...Thousands of N'Djamena residents took that swaggering as a sure sign it was time to flee, and French troops picked up the pace of their airlift. By noon Monday, the French Army said it had transported more than 800 foreign nationals to Gabon, around 570 of whom have been flown on to France. Another 200 are waiting to be evacuated from Chad. Around 1,500 French soldiers are stationed in Chad under bilateral security accord...