There is uneasy calm in the Chadian capital N’Djamena after 19 people were killed in an attempted attack on the presidential complex.
Reports say individuals in three vehicles attacked the military camps around the president’s office, but the army neutralised them.
18 insurgents died during the failed assault on the president’s office on Wednesday evening, which also led to the death of one member of the security forces.
“There were 18 dead and six injured” among the attackers “and we suffered one death and three injured, one of them seriously”, Chad’s foreign minister and government spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah said.
Hours after the shooting, Koulamallah appeared in a video, surrounded by soldiers and with a gun on his belt, saying, “The situation is completely under control … the destabilisation attempt was put down.”
The attack coincided with an official visit by China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Chad.
Hours before the shooting erupted, Wang Yi had met with Chad’s President Mahamat Idriss Deby and other senior officials.
Deby was in the presidential complex at the time of the attack, according to Koulamallah.
In a statement following the incident, China’s foreign ministry said it firmly supports Chad in its effort to keep the country safe and stable.
When asked at a regular news briefing about the deadly gunfire, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman noted that Wang had concluded his visit to the African country.
Deby seized power after rebels killed his father in 2021 after ruling Chad for 39 years.
A security source told the French news agency AFP news agency that the attackers were members of the Boko Haram armed group. But spokesman Koulamallah said they were “probably not” rebels, describing them instead as drunken “Pieds Nickeles” – a reference to a French comic featuring hapless crooks.
The attack comes less than two weeks after Chad held a contested general election that the government hailed as a key step towards ending military rule. It was marked by low turnout and opposition allegations of fraud.
Source: Africafeeds.com
