Chad is led by President Mahamat Idriss Deby, who seized power after rebels killed his father, long-standing President Idriss Deby. File picture: Sputnik, Mikhail Metzel, Pool via Reuters
By Mahamat Ramadane
N'DJAMENA - Chad’s government said security forces had foiled an attempt to destabilise the country on Wednesday evening, after bursts of gunfire rang out near the president’s office in the capital N’Djamena and the military blocked the surrounding streets.
In a video shot at the presidential headquarters, government spokesperson Abderaman Koulamallah said the situation was completely under control, without giving details on what had happened.
"It was a little incident ... everything is calm," he said in the footage posted on Facebook. "This whole attempt at destabilisation has been thwarted."
Wednesday's events coincided with an official visit by China Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Chad, which recently ended a defence co-operation pact with long-time partner France that had made it a key Western ally in the fight against Islamic militants in West and Central Africa's troubled Sahel region.
With a handgun strapped to his hip, Koulamallah posed with soldiers in fatigues holding assault rifles and promised to share more details later.
A security source described the incident as an attempted terrorist attack.
"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.
Earlier, residents in the area described hearing loud volleys of gunshots.
"I am stuck at Place de Nation in front of the president's office, because I hear intense gunfire and military vehicles coming from all directions," said one of the residents, Abbas Mahamout Seid, who had been riding his motorcycle.
Chad is led by President Mahamat Idriss Deby, who seized power after rebels killed his father, long-standing President Idriss Deby, as he was visiting troops fighting militias in the north of the country in 2021.
The older Deby had ruled Chad - which is rich in oil resources but one of the poorest countries in Africa - since a coup in the early 1990s.
- REUTERS