Gunmen attempted to storm the presidential complex in Chad's capital N'Djamena on Wednesday, sparking a battle that left 18 attackers and one security personnel member dead, the government said.
AFP reporters heard gunfire erupt near the site and saw tanks on the street, while security sources reported that armed men had tried to overrun the complex.
The government later said 19 people were killed in the fighting, of which 18 were members of the 24-strong commando unit that launched the assault.
"There were 18 dead and six injured" among the attackers "and we suffered one death and three injured, one of them seriously", government spokesman and Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah told AFP.
Hours after the shooting, Koulamallah appeared in a video posted to Facebook, surrounded by soldiers and with a gun on his belt, saying "the situation is completely under control... the destabilisation attempt was put down".
A security source said the attackers were members of the Boko Haram jihadist group, which Chadian forces are fighting in the western Lake Chad region that borders Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger.
Landlocked Chad is under military rule and faces regular attacks by Boko Haram.
It recently ended a military accord with former colonial power France and has been accused of interfering in the conflict ravaging neighbouring Sudan.
Several security sources said that an armed commando unit opened fire inside the presidency on Wednesday evening around 7:45 pm (1845 GMT), before being overpowered by the presidential guard.
All roads leading to the presidency were blocked and tanks could be seen on the streets, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
As civilians rushed out of the city centre in cars and motorcycles, armed police were seen at several points in the district.
Hours before the fighting broke out, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno and other senior officials.
France's last Sahel bases
The former French colony hosted France's last military bases in the region known as the Sahel, but at the end of November, Chad ended defence and security agreements with Paris, calling them "obsolete".
Around a thousand French military personnel were stationed in the country and are in the process of being withdrawn.
France was previously driven out of three Sahelian countries governed by juntas hostile to Paris -- Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
Senegal and Ivory Coast have also asked France to vacate military bases on their territory.
Like father, like son
The gunfire erupted less than two weeks after Chad held a contested general election that the government hailed as a key step towards ending military rule, but that was marked by low turnout and opposition allegations of fraud.
A call by the opposition for voters to boycott the polls left the field open for candidates aligned with the president, who was brought to power by the military in 2021 and then legitimised in a May presidential election that opposition candidates denounced as fraudulent.
Deby took power after the death of his father, who had ruled the country with an iron fist for three decades.
The desert country is an oil producer but ranked fourth from bottom in the United Nations Human Development Index.
To consolidate his grip on power, Deby has reshuffled the army, historically dominated by the Zaghawas and Gorane, his mother's ethnic group.
On the diplomatic front, he has sought new strategic partnerships, including with Russia and Hungary.
(AFP)
U.S. declares Sudan's paramilitary and
proxy forces are committing genocide
Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The United States has accused Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and proxy militias of committing genocide in the Northeast African nation's nearly 2-year-old civil war.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the genocide determination Tuesday. The United States has repeatedly declared that war crimes have been committed by both warring parties in Sudan's civil war, but Blinken alleged that the RSF's systematic murder and sexual violence targeting individuals based on their ethnicity now meets the high threshold of genocide.
"The RSF and allied militias have systematically murdered men and boys -- even infants -- on an ethnic basis, and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence. Those same militias have targeted fleeing civilians, murdering innocent people escaping conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing life-saving supplies," Blinken said in a statement.
The breakaway RSF and the Sudan Defense Force have been locked in a deepening and bloody civil war since April 2023, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands, the displacement of millions and the creation of the world's largest humanitarian catastrophe.
The genocide determination is largely symbolic, but the U.S. Treasury accompanied Blinken's announcement with sanctions targeting Gen. Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa, leader of the RSF, as well as the paramilitary weapons supplier Abu Dharr Abdul Nabi Habiballa Ahmmed and seven related companies.
Allegations of ethnic violence have come predominantly from Sudan's Darfur province, where RSF and its aligned militias have killed thousands.
Blinken mentioned Darfur in his statement, directly implicating Mohammad Hamdan in gross human rights violations committed there, specifically the mass rape of civilians.
"The United States is committed to holding accountable those responsible for these atrocities," Blinken said.
The United States has repeatedly responded with sanctions to the civil war, which broke out following years of uncertainty in the country as it attempted to crawl toward stability after the fall of African nation's former three-decade dictator government of President Omar al-Bashir in a civilian-backed coup in 2019.
The genocide determination is the second made by the United States in Darfur this century. In September of 2004, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell declared a genocide was being committed in Darfur province by the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed militia, which would later evolve into the RSF.
Brian Adeba, senior advisor at The Sentry, an investigative and policy organization, said the genocide determination sends "a strong message" to victims that their suffering is recognized and that justice will be pursued.
"Most importantly, the determination signals that the world is waking up to the task of holding those who commit mass atrocities accountable. This determination must be accompanied by bold and concrete action to not only hold perpetrators accountable, but also protect civilians, and support the pursuit of justice and peace in Sudan," Adeba said in a statement.
Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, similarly described Blinken's determination in a statement as an important step to identifying atrocities committed by the RSF.
"Keeping U.S. focus on holding the RSF and SAF accountable and ending this conflict must continue to be a priority as we seek to address the world's worst humanitarian crisis," he said.
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