East Chad battle leaves riverbed strewn with bodies
Source: Reuters
By Stephanie Hancock BOBOK, Chad, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Vultures wheeled over dozens of decomposing bodies and charred military vehicles strewn across a dried-out riverbed in eastern Chad. The stench of death filled the air. Discarded uniforms, combat boots and empty ammunition boxes littered the sand. Plastic tubes from intravenous (IV) drips hurriedly applied to wounded fighters still dangled from trees, flapping in the breeze. This wadi or riverbed near the village of Bobok, 40 km (25 miles) west of the eastern town of Biltine, was the scene at the weekend of one of the heaviest battles this year between government forces and rebels opposed to President Idriss Deby. Both sides claim victory in the latest clash of this hit-and-run low-intensity war, fought with armed pick-up trucks in the desert, scrubland and mountains of eastern Chad. "It was violent, very violent," said Biltine's mayor, Moussa Abdel Nabi, who toured the battlefield with reporters on Monday. "All we could hear was heavy weapons, even from 40 kilometres away in Biltine," he said. Both rebel and army officials say the battle began at dawn on Saturday when three government columns attacked the rebels ensconced in the tree-lined wadi. The Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) rebels had holed up in the riverbed hide-out after withdrawing from Biltine which they briefly occupied on Thursday. The battle was heavy, lasting five hours, with rebels using the cover of the wadi to pour fire on government troops. UFDD leader Mahamat Nouri, a former Chadian defence minister who defected from Deby's government in May, told Reuters by satellite phone on Saturday the government army was routed. He said his fighters killed between 200 and 300 Chadian soldiers, while losing 50 men. The government had a different version, saying its forces killed more than 100 rebel fighters with the loss of 30 troops. It says the rebels were put to flight. Eastern Chad, where the weekend battle was fought, borders Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region and Deby accuses the Sudanese government of backing Chadian rebels and Arab militia raiders striking across the border. Khartoum denies this. REBEL OR ARMY DEAD? The governor of the local Wadi Fira region, Teguene Idebe Berde, who also accompanied journalists, said the rebels fled in the direction of Arada, 60 kilometres (38 km) to the north. "We know they are hidden away in the region somewhere, but we are on their tail and following them," he told Reuters. Of the more than 20 corpses -- some burned beyond recognition -- scattered across the floor of the wadi, most were dressed in Chadian army uniforms. But Berde said they were rebels, wearing uniforms captured when UFDD forces attacked the main eastern city of Abeche last month. "We know who is a rebel and who is a government soldier. We were already on the scene yesterday, and we've collected and buried all our dead," he said. Amid remains of campfires beneath the wadi's acacia trees and shrubs, personal belongings were scattered: playing cards, note books with scrawlings in Arabic, empty food cans, flip-flops, blister packs of medication. Deep inside the wadi, soldiers showed journalists where rebels had buried their dead in 13 neat mounds of sand, marked with pieces of wood and metal. There was evidence the rebels had tried to treat their wounded. Connected to one of the IV lines dangling from a tree was the body of a man, his head supported by a blanket and bandages tied around his midriff. The final death toll from the battle may never be known. But aid workers in Abeche to the south, where government casualties were taken, reported evidence of "carnage". One witness saw two pick-up trucks, piled with wounded soldiers, waiting for treatment outside the city hospital. At least 45 badly wounded soldiers were evacuated to the capital N'Djamena.
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
