Chadians flee capital during a lull in battles

Thousands of frightened Chadians took advantage of a lull in fighting Monday to flee N’Djamena when rebels withdrew from the capital after two days of heavy clashes with government troops.

Officials, however, warned that battles were probably not over; rebel leaders vowed to attack again.

“Rebels still have a capability of fighting,” said Capt. Christophe Prazuck, spokesman for the French Ministry of Defense, which has 1,900 troops deployed in the Central African country and has evacuated nearly 1,000 foreigners. “They announced they were leaving to reorganize their forces. They’re not far from town, so things may change rapidly.”

At the United Nations on Monday, the Security Council tacitly opened the door to military intervention by France and other countries, with a unanimous condemnation of the rebels’ coup attempt and a call for nations to help Chad’s government end the violence

The nonbinding statement also backed efforts by leaders from Libya and the Republic of Congo to try to broker a peace deal. The U.S. State Department and African Union have also condemned the coup attempt. France’s U.N. ambassador, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said his country was providing only humanitarian assistance to Chad, but hinted that it was ready if Chad were to ask for military support. Prazuck said French troops have an agreement with the Chadian military to share intelligence and provide medical support.

Rebels were believed to be regrouping to the north; some were hiding in eastern N’Djamena, Prazuck said.

Rebels said they were pulling back to allow civilians time to evacuate. “We certainly will go back on the offensive,” rebel spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah told the French news agency Agence France-Presse.

Chadian government officials claimed victory. “The savage mercenaries are routed,” Interior Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir said on Radio France Internationale.

Humanitarian officials estimated that at least 500 civilians had been wounded in the preceding two days, most of them caught in crossfire.

More than 1,000 rebels penetrated the capital Saturday, facing off against government troops. It was the third coup attempt in Chad in three years.

The death toll remained unclear, but officials were bracing for high numbers because of the heavy weaponry used. Bodies were lying in the streets.

At daylight Monday, a crush of panicked civilians began evacuating, creating traffic jams on all major roads and a bridge spanning the Chari River toward neighboring Cameroon.

“There was a lot of overcrowding on the bridge, and some people abandoned their cars and walked,” said Ann Birch, spokeswoman for World Vision in Dakar, Senegal, after speaking to one of the charity’s staffers in N’Djamena.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders said some of its health workers could not reach victims because of the heavy traffic, a spokeswoman said.

European Union officials told reporters Monday that the fighting had temporarily halted its deployment of 3,700 troops into eastern Chad, where they were being sent to help protect about 250,000 refugees from the Darfur conflict in western Sudan. But he remained optimistic that the deployment would resume.

Chadian officials and analysts accuse the Sudanese government of backing the Chad rebels in an attempt to install a Sudan-friendly regime and keep EU troops from the Chad-Sudan border. Officials in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, deny that the government there played a role.

“It’s in our interest to have a politically stable neighbor,” said Ali Sadiq, spokesman for Sudan’s Foreign Ministry.

“Sudan is in no position, neither politically nor militarily, to challenge the deployment of these troops, though it’s not a secret that we don’t feel comfortable having them next door.”

The whereabouts of Chadian President Idriss Deby remained unclear. He has not appeared publicly or released a statement since fighting began, but was believed to be directing his troops from inside the presidential palace.

Deby, who seized control of Chad in a 1990 coup, has become increasingly unpopular in recent years. The discovery of oil has begun generating revenue expected to reach billions of dollars in coming years, but Deby is accused of using most of the new wealth to bolster his military. He amended the country’s constitution to run for another term. Recent presidential elections were deemed seriously flawed.

edmund.sanders@latimes.com

Times staff writer Maggie Farley at the United Nations contributed to this report.