Chad’s President Flees Country; Rebel Forces March Into Capital

President Hissen Habre fled the country Saturday after a string of rebel victories, and Libyan-armed guerrilla fighters later marched into the capital, Western diplomats said.

Habre and much of his government sought refuge in neighboring Cameroon, the diplomats said.

As the rebels closed in, soldiers threw away their guns and uniforms, leaving the city practically undefended. There was wild looting in the capital, N’Djamena, by civilians and renegades from the Chadian army.

France said it is sending hundreds more troops to N’Djamena. It also began organizing the evacuation of French and other foreign nationals living in this north-central African nation, a former French colony.

It was not immediately known how many rebels marched into the city, but it appeared that they were mainly advance patrols.

The rebels’ biggest victory was Thursday’s capture of Abeche, an eastern town of about 30,000 people 500 miles from N’Djamena.

The rebels, led by former armed forces chief Idriss Deby, are armed by Libya, but there was no indication the neighboring nation was involved in the latest fighting.

Libya, which has made past claims to parts of Chad, denies involvement in the rebel offensive, which began Nov. 10.

Deby went into exile in April, 1989, when Habre accused him and an army commander of a coup attempt involving their Zaghawa tribe.

Amnesty International, the human rights organization, reported this year that Habre had rounded up hundreds of Zaghawa people after the coup. It feared that many had been executed.

The French news agency Agence France-Presse cited sources in N’Djamena as saying Deby will march into the capital today at the head of an army of guerrillas and government deserters.

Alingue Bawayeu, president of Chad’s National Assembly and apparently the highest-ranking government official left in N’Djamena, appealed for calm in an address on Radio Chad. He said talks with Deby are under way.

Bawayeu, who is under the protection of French troops, said he is leading an interim government of National Assembly members.

About 1,000 foreigners, mostly French, assembled at the N’Djamena airport to be evacuated. A Boeing 747 was to arrive with about 500 in Paris this morning.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Anita Stockman said an unspecified number of Americans will be leaving N’Djamena on the Paris-bound flights. About 300 Americans are in Chad, including 150 in the capital.

Paris has said that the fighting is among Chadians and that it will not interfere. Chad contends the rebels, based in neighboring Sudan, are backed by Libya.

Despite a 1989 peace treaty, Chad and Libya continue to dispute the Aouzou Strip, a mineral-rich region located on Chad’s northern frontier.