Chad rebels say open new battlefront in northeast

A Chadian rebel group said on Saturday its fighters had seized a town in the country's remote northeast in an effort to open …

A Chadian rebel group said on Saturday its fighters had seized a town in the country's remote northeast in an effort to open a new front in their fight against President Idriss Deby's government.

This morning two columns of the Union Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) carried out attacks ... They were able to dislodge government forces and they now occupy the town of Ounianga Kebir, rebel spokesman Makaila Nguebla said.

French radio quoted Chad's information minister as saying the attack had just been an incursion and that the rebels had since retreated to the Sudanese border.

Ounianga Kebir lies in the Sahara desert in Chad's far northeast, roughly equidistant from the Sudanese and Libyan borders. Previous rebel attacks have largely targeted towns much further south near the Sudan border.

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"We have been obliged to open several fronts ... It is a military strategy, we are trying to generalise the conflict across the national territory so as to stretch the government forces," Nguebla said.

Nguebla, based in Senegal's capital Dakar, said rebel commanders in Chad had told him by satellite phone that they planned to carry out more attacks in the coming days. He said the two columns numbered around 80 fighters in all.

It was not immediately possible to obtain independent confirmation of the rebel claims