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SUDAN BLAMED FOR CHAD REBEL RAID December 19, 2005
Apunyu Bonny
(SomaliNet) Sudan was on Sunday 18th blamed by its neighbor Chad for a rebel raid on an eastern garrison. Chad has announced that it is exercising its right to pursue the attackers on Sudanese soil, a wire report has revealed.
"The Chadian government holds the Sudanese government wholly responsible for this morning's attack, mounted from its territory," said a spokesman in a statement released in N’djamena.
The spokesman added that The Chadian government forces are now using their right of pursuit to ward off any further threat against the border town of Adre. By Sunday afternoon it was unclear who of the two countries (Sudan or Chad) controlled Adre.
The spokesman said the early morning attack on Adre's garrison was mounted by army deserters allied with a recently formed rebel group called the Rally for Democracy and Liberty (RDL), which Chad accuses of being a "militia used by the Sudanese government." He said about 100 of the attackers were killed, a toll that could not be independently confirmed.
About 30 people were injured in the fighting and a helicopter accident, according to the international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), which runs a surgical unit in the hospital. Two rockets, apparently launched as a result of the helicopter accident, fell on the hospital, injuring people both inside and outside the facility, according to an MSF spokesman in Paris.
The Chadian government statement said the attackers had been "surprised by our forces who had been expecting them for several days and dealt them a bruising defeat," the spokesman said.
Late Sunday, a Chadian military officer said another 80 rebels were killed in a second assault on the town in the afternoon. "We repulsed them into Sudan," he said, requesting anonymity. He said two Chadian soldiers were also killed.