Sporadic gunfire rang out Tuesday around Chad's capital, which was awaiting African mediators after three days of fighting between rebels and the army took a heavy toll on civilians and increased instability in the restive region along Darfur's border.
Oil-rich Chad's Foreign Minister Ahmad Allam-mi said rebels who had entered the city on Saturday had been chased 50 kilometers (30 miles) from N'djamena, and said the capital was calm. Thousands of people had fled, and more than 1,000 had been wounded, many of them civilians.
"I think they are awaiting some reinforcements but all threat to the security of the city of N'djamena can now be put aside," Allam-mi told reporters in Paris after talks with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
French military spokesman Capt. Christophe Prazuck reported gunfire earlier Tuesday, but said rebels pursuing their most forceful attempt yet to oust President Idriss Deby _ who himself seized power at the head of a rebellion _ appeared to be holding back around the fringes of N'djamena.
Rebel chief Mahamat Nouri told French radio Europe-1 that French aircraft had been bombarding the rebels from Sunday night until early Tuesday. Nouri said the rebels were ready to launch a new offensive and said they would be able to take the capital except for the French army.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said French troops have taken no part in the fighting _ except Friday night, when they opened fire to protect French civilians. Sarkozy dismissed rebel claims that French forces had killed civilians.
So far, French forces were only securing the safety of foreigners and the capital's airport and offering logistical, medical and intelligence help to the Chadian military, Prazuck said. French Foreign Minister Kouchner stressed that France had no intention, for the time being, of stepping that up, "especially since peace seems to be on the agenda more than it was two days ago."
On Monday the U.N. Security Council strongly condemned the rebel attack and authorized France and other nations to help Chad's government. France, Chad's former colonial rule, has given Deby strong support in the past and has 1,800 soldiers backed by fighter jets based in Chad.
Pressed in France on the possible effects of the Security Council statement, Kouchner responded, "If you want to make me say that we will go to war against the rebels, I'm telling you, no. There's no question of it."
Chadian Foreign Minister Allam-mi said his country had been successfully fighting the rebels, "and for the moment, we don't need extra help."
Sarkozy, speaking to reporters in La Rochelle, France, said France was ready to attack the rebels only if necessary.
France was to protect the high-level officials and diplomats from the Republic of Congo and Libya who were to arrive Tuesday on an African Union mediation mission, the republic's Foreign Affairs Minister Basile Ikouebe said Monday in Brazzaville.
Chad is in an already violent swath of Africa that is home to hundreds of thousands of refugees and borders Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region. The violence endangers a US$300 million (euro200 million) global aid operation supporting millions of people in Chad. The U.N.'s World Food Program said it could disrupt delivery of food to 420,000 Darfur refugees and Chadians displaced by violence.
Chadian officials have repeatedly accused Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir of supporting the rebels, and even deploying Sudanese troops in rebel offensives in eastern Chad. Sudan denies involvement, and in turn has accused Chad of aiding Darfur rebels.
A French presidential aide has said Sudan wants to crush Deby to derail the imminent deployment of a European Union peacekeeping force that is to protect refugees along the Darfur border.
The United States asked Sudan to halt any possible aid to the rebels and use its influence "to tell them to withdraw," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday.
The AU mediators also were to talk to Sudan.
The fighting in N'djamena has at times been intense. Bodies lay on the streets and the hulks of burned out tanks and other vehicles stood abandoned. An Associated Press reporter saw a Libyan military cargo plane evacuating dozens of wounded Chadians in civilian clothes Tuesday. A Chadian soldier said the plane was taking them for treatment in Tripoli.
More than 1,000 people have been wounded in recent days, Anna Schaaf, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, told reporters in Geneva Tuesday. She said staff had been unable to move around N'djamena over the weekend so the assessment made Monday was likely incomplete.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said most casualties were civilians with bullet wounds.
Thousands fled across the Chari River into Cameroon, though estimates varied widely, with the U.N. putting it at up to 20,000 and U.S. charity World Vision at about 300,000 of N'djamena's 700,000 people.
"As of this morning, frightened people were still crossing in a continuous flow," Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency told reporters in Geneva.
French soldiers used armored vehicles to evacuate French nationals and other foreigners over the weekend. About 1,000 foreigners had been evacuated by Tuesday, with 245 remaining under French protection at their military camp or other protected sites, Prazuck said.
Human Rights Watch said it had reports that Chadian security forces were detaining political opposition leaders, "using the fighting as a pretext for settling scores," according to acting Africa director, Georgette Gagnon.
She recalled that her organization documented abuses by Chadian security forces in the aftermath of a 2006 rebel offensive, including torture and summary executions of civilians suspected of rebel affiliations.
Deby himself rose to power just as the rebels are trying to, heading an insurgent force that captured N'djamena in 1990. He has won two elections since then, neither considered free or fair.
The rebels are a coalition of three groups whose leaders include Mahamat Nouri, a former defense minister, and Timan Erdimi, a nephew of Deby who was his chief of staff. They accuse Deby of corruption and embezzling millions in oil revenue.
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