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> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080202/ap_on_re_af/chad
>
> By TOM MALITI, Associated Press Writer
> 2 hours, 6 minutes ago
>
> NAIROBI, Kenya - Hundreds of rebels penetrated the capital of Chad on
> Saturday, clashing with government troops and moving on the
> presidential palace after a three-day advance through the oil-
> producing central African nation, officials and witnesses said.
>
> Chad's ambassador to Ethiopia said the capital had not fallen and that
> President Idriss Deby was "fine" in his palace.
>
> "The situation is under control," ambassador Cherif Mahamat Zene told
> The Associated Press. "The head of state is fine in his palace ...
> It's true that there are some rebels who have entered the city, but to
> say the city has fallen is false."
>
> A French military spokesman, Col. Thierry Burkhard, said that Chadian
> government forces were pushing rebels away from the presidential
> palace but that the outcome of the fighting Saturday remained unclear.
>
> Deby's whereabouts were unclear, the spokesman said, saying he could
> not confirm reports that Deby had remained in the presidential palace.
>
> Chad, a French colony until 1960, has been convulsed by civil wars and
> invasions since independence, and the recent discovery of oil has only
> increased the intensity of the struggle for power in the largely
> desert country about three times the size of California.
>
> The rebel force is believed to be a coalition of three groups,
> including the biggest led by former diplomat Mahamat Nouri, who
> defected 16 months ago, and a nephew of Deby's, Timan Erdimi. They
> long have been fighting to overthrow Deby, whom they accuse of
> corruption.
>
> The rebels also have said they were unhappy with the president not
> providing enough support to rebels in Sudan's Darfur region, some of
> whom are from Deby's own tribe, the Zaghawa, who are found both Chad
> and Sudan.
>
> The renewed fighting has led the European Union to delay its
> peacekeeping mission in both Chad and neighboring Central African
> Republic, which was due to be up and running early next month, said
> Commandant Dan Harvey, speaking at the EU military headquarters in
> Paris on Friday. The deployment of the advance force could be
> postponed for days, he said.
>
> The force already has met repeated delays. It is aimed at protecting
> refugees from Darfur, which borders Chad, as well as protecting
> Chadians and Central Africans displaced by turmoil in their own
> countries.
>
> The news that rebels reached Chad's capital broke just as African
> leaders were listening to the closing speeches of a three-day summit
> in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. Representatives from the Chad
> delegation refused to comment to The Associated Press.
>
> The new head of the African Union said that the bloc would not
> recognize Chadian rebels should they seize power.
>
> "If the rebellion succeeds, certainly we will excommunicate them from
> the African Union until normalcy and democratic institutions are
> restored in that country, if it has to happen that way at all,"
> Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete told a news conference.
>
> The United Nations decided to temporarily evacuate all its staff from
> Chad's capital because of the fighting, said William Spindler,
> spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
>
> The U.S. Embassy said in a bulletin on its Web site that any American
> citizens seeking evacuation should immediately move to the embassy.
> State Department spokesman Karl Duckworth said the embassy had
> authorized the departure of nonessential personnel and family members.
>
> "At this time the U.S. is monitoring the security situation closely,"
> Duckworth said in a statement. "The serious violence that has occurred
> has not been directed at any U.S. personnel or facilities. We are
> taking all appropriate precautions to ensure the security of U.S.
> mission personnel and all American citizens in Chad."
>
> France's embassy in Chad sent messages over Radio France
> Internationale telling citizens to head to the Lycee Francais high
> school and two other locations in N'Djamena, a French diplomatic
> official said on condition of anonymity because government policy
> barred him from providing his name.
>
> Rebels said they would protect foreigners trying to evacuate
> N'Djamena.
>
> "We will not stop the embassies from evacuating people," Mahamat
> Hassane Boulmaye of the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development
> told the AP. "We will try to protect them if it is necessary." He was
> reached on a Sudanese mobile telephone number and said he was speaking
> from Chad's border with Sudan.
>
> Rebel forces have been advancing on the capital for three days in
> about 250 pickup trucks from the direction of the border with Sudan,
> about 500 miles to the east of N'Djamena.
>
> A hotel operator at the Hotel le Meridien, about a mile from the
> headquarters of President Idriss Deby, said gunfire and explosions had
> been resounding through the capital since 7 a.m.
>
> The man, who would not give his name, said he had not seen any rebels.
> The line went dead before a reporter could get more details. Other
> phone lines also were dead and the information could not immediately
> be confirmed.
>
> Rebels in more than a dozen vehicles drove past the Libya Hotel, which
> overlooks the parliament building, said a man who answered the
> telephone at that hotel.
>
> "I saw more than 15 vehicles and they (the rebels) were firing into
> the air," said the man, who also would not give his name. He said he
> also watched looters go into a police station opposite the hotel,
> stealing chairs and throwing papers on the ground.
>
> Deby himself came to power at the head of a rebellion in 1990; he has
> won elections since, but none of the votes were deemed free or fair.
> He brought a semblance of peace after three decades of civil war and
> an invasion by Libya, but became increasingly isolated.
>
> The most recent series of rebellions began in 2005 in the country's
> east, occurring at the same time as the conflict in Darfur saw a rise
> in violence. One Chadian rebel group launched a failed assault on
> N'Djamena, in April 2006.
>
> The governments of Chad and Sudan repeatedly exchange accusations the
> one is backing the other's rebel groups.
>
> U.N. officials estimate that around 3 million people have been
> uprooted by conflicts in the region, including the fighting in western
> Sudan's Darfur region and rebellions in Central African Republic.
>
> France sent more troops late Thursday to boost a longtime military
> presence in Chad. About 1,500 French citizens live in Chad, most in
> N'Djamena.
>
> It appeared that Chad's government might be getting less help from
> France than during previous rebel attempts to take the capital, said
> Henri Boshoff, a military analyst at the Institute for Security
> Studies in Pretoria, South Africa.
>
> Previously, "the French gave them intelligence using aerial
> reconnaissance and that allowed the Chad government to act," Boshoff
> told The Associated Press. "But it looks like this time it's too late,
> the rebels got too close to the city."
>
> The difference could be that former President Jacques Chirac was
> leading France during the previous coup attempts, a leader who made
> every effort to project France as a friendly protector on the African
> continent. France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has called for a
> "healthier relationship," saying it will not be business as usual with
> France's old corrupt allies on the continent.
>
> ___