Word: oueddei
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...climax to Chad's civil war came last week with surprising speed. Some 2,000 shock troops loyal to former Defense Minister Hissene Habre, 39, advanced from north and east on the dusty capital of N'Djamena. When the rebels appeared, the armies of President Goukouni Oueddei beat a confused retreat. Stranded, with only a few loyal soldiers left, Goukouni fled ignominiously into exile by boarding a canoe to cross the Chari River into Cameroon. By sundown, the three-year reign of Goukouni was over and Habre, who received support from Egypt and Sudan, was ensconced...
Perhaps Gaddafi's most brazen use of force was his invasion of neighboring Chad in November 1980 in support of President Goukouni Oueddei. Barely a month later, Gaddafi declared a merger of the two countries and kept up to 10,000 Libyan troops in Chad as a virtual occupation force. Then, just as abruptly, Gaddafi removed his troops last November after the Organization of African Unity asked him to do so. But he may not stay out: much of Chad is marked on Gaddafi's own maps as part of a greater Libya that also includes sections of Niger...
...area, as well as the French. Habré and his little army took refuge in the border area between Chad and the Sudan and began to launch periodic raids. What was not realized at the time was that Gaddafi's announcement also alarmed Chad's President Oueddei, who sought a way of escaping Libya's smothering embrace. He supported a proposal of the 50-nation Organization of African Unity to provide troops that could replace the Libyans, whose numbers by last month had reached an estimated 10,000. Nigeria and Senegal were willing, but nothing came...
Enter Mitterrand. In an effort to wean Oueddei away from Gaddafi, Mitterrand supported the proposal for an inter-African force, invited Oueddei to Paris, supplied his army with some small arms and repeated an earlier offer to help rebuild the Chadian army in a neighboring country, probably Cameroon. In early October, the French Development Minister, Jean-Pierre Cot, demanded the withdrawal of the Libyans from Chad by the end of the year. Oueddei, bolstered by the French, openly criticized the Libyan presence...
...Then Oueddei and his Foreign Minister, Ahmat Acyl, showed up at last week's meeting of African leaders in Paris, although Acyl was rumored to have attempted to overthrow his superior, with the Libyans' connivance, the week before. But all was well, they insisted, and Oueddei said he welcomed the departure of the Libyans...