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CHAD: Government says rebels attacked airport

ABIDJAN, 7 October (IRIN) - The Chadian Ministry of Information reported on Friday that rebels had attacked an airport in the north, killing four soldiers and destroying two attack helicopters and a bomber.

The rebels of the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT) were said to have taken advantage of bad weather resulting from sandstorm as a cover to attack the airport on Thursday in Faya, 620 miles north of the capital N'djamena, sources at the ministry said.

The reported attack was the first by the rebels since the death of their leader Youssouf Togoimi on 24 September in Libya. Togoimi died of wounds sustained in a landmine accident and Chadian officials had thought that his death would allow the renewal of peace talks with the rebels.

President Idriss Deby, upon return from a Central Africa heads of state summit in Gabon, called the rebel attack "a terrorist attack" and a rejection of the government's desire to bring peace in the country.

The MDJT launched a rebellion against Deby's government in 1998, to protest what it deemed as an ineffective and "corrupt" regime. The rebellion was confined to the Tibesti region, bordering Libya to the north.

In January, with Libyan mediation, the government and MDJT signed a peace agreement that called for a cease-fire and an amnesty for the rebel fighters. Parliament passed the amnesty bill in February.

[ENDS]

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