Chad’s military transitional government late on Sunday rejected the possibility of negotiating with the rebels, who were blamed for killing the country’s president for three decades, raising the specter that armed fighters could push forward with their threats to attack the capital.
A spokesman for the rebel group, known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad, told the Associated Press (AP) that it is now joining forces with other armed groups that oppose President Idriss Deby Itno’s son, Mahamat, and take control of the country. after his father’s killing.
In a televised statement, military spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouma said the rebels were trying to collaborate with “several groups of jihadists and traffickers who served as mercenaries in Libya.
“Given the situation that threatens Chad and the stability of the entire sub-region, it is not time for mediation or negotiation with the lawless,” he said.
The military spokesman said some of the rebels had fled in the direction of Chad’s border with Niger and called on the Nigerian government to help capture them.
“The defense and security forces launched after them with the support of the air force located the enemy scattered in small groups gathered in Niger territory,” he said, far from the Chadian capital.
A spokesman for the armed group, Kingabe Ogouzeimi de Tapol, told the Associated Press that the rebels had not given up, although he refused to say where the forces were on Sunday, citing security reasons.
“There are other armed groups that have joined us,” he said. “We welcome them and we integrate them into our various battalions.”
A rebel leader in northern Chad said on Sunday that they were “prepared to watch a ceasefire” after launching a major invasion of the region and being accused by the Chadian army of killing the veteran leader.
“We have confirmed our availability to observe a ceasefire, a ceasefire … but this morning we were bombed again,” Mahamat Mahadi Ali, head of the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), told Agence France-Presse (AFP) .
But Mahadi Ali warned that a ceasefire must be observed by both sides.
The Chadian rebels, known by their French acronym FACT, were based in southern Libya and are believed to have returned to Chad earlier this month on election day. Deby, the country’s president since 1990, won easily based on official results as several leading opposition politicians did not attend.
However, the military announced the next day that Deby had been killed wounded when she visited the front line in the fight against the rebels. His son, Mahamat Idriss Deby, was appointed head of a military council planning an 18-month transition to new elections.
The former colonial power France has been careful not to criticize the military’s actions and French President Emmanuel Macron attended Deby’s funeral last week. Chad is home to a French military base where the fight against terrorism in the region is headquartered. Chad has also delivered critical troops to the UN peacekeeping mission in northern Mali.
However, political opposition groups have rejected Mahmat Idriss Deby’s appointment as a coup and said that the president of the National Assembly should have taken over instead. The opposition has called for demonstrations this week to demand a return to civilian rule.
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