Word: n
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...relative calm returned to the streets of N'Djamena after rebel forces withdrew Sunday to the outskirts of the Chadian capital following a weekend of heavy fighting with government troops. The lull in the violence allowed the French Army to airlift over 800 foreigners out of Chad, 202 of whom touched down in Paris Sunday, tired but unharmed. The rebels retreated in the face of a successful counter-offensive mounted by units loyal to President Idriss Déby. But fears remained high in N'Djamena and abroad that the retreat is temporary and that the bloodletting...
...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...