Chad say military foiled armed assault on presidential complex, 19 killed

Security forces in Chad claimed to have stopped an armed fighters’ attempt to storm the presidential complex in the country’s capital, N’Djamena, killing at least 19 people.

According to the government, one member of the security forces also died in the gun battles, and at least 18 of a group of 24 armed men were killed in the failed assault on the president’s office on Wednesday evening.

“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.

Koulamallah said in a video that “the destabilization attempt was put down,” surrounded by soldiers and wearing a gun to his belt.

Wang Yi, the foreign minister of China, made an official visit to China during the attack.

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.

Deby seized power after rebels killed his father, longstanding President Idriss Deby, in 2021. Deby had been in power since a coup in the early 1990s, which was more recent.

The attackers were identified as Boko Haram members, according to a security source who later claimed they were “probably not” rebels, referring instead to drunken “Pieds Nickeles,” a phrase used in a French comic featuring hapless crooks. Koulamallah later later said they were “probably not” rebels.

A security official added that the incident was likely an “attempted terrorist attack” and that a security official was aware of it.

“Individuals in three vehicles attacked the military camps around the president’s office, but the army neutralised them”, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Residents of the area reported hearing loud gunfire volleys.

The government praised the contested general election as a crucial step toward ending military rule, but which was marred by low turnout and fraud allegations in opposition.

The field was open for candidates who supported the president after the opposition called for voters to boycott the polls.

The former French colony, which is rich in oil resources but one of the poorest countries in Africa, hosted France’s last military bases in the region known as the Sahel, but at the end of November, ended defence and security agreements with Paris, calling them “obsolete”.

Around 1,500 French military personnel were stationed in the nation right now, with some of them reserving. After France was expelled from three Sahelian nations, Mali, Burkinabe, and Niger, military-held nations were ruled by hostile regimes.