CHAD:European officials will meet tomorrow to review the deployment of advance units of the EU mission to Chad as fighting continues between government forces and rebels seeking to oust the country's president in the capital, N'Djamena.
The deployment has been postponed until at least Wednesday due to the rebel offensive, which continued yesterday with troops loyal to Chadian president Idriss Deby battling thousands of rebels after they besieged the presidential palace.
International aid agencies reported bodies on the streets and widespread looting in the capital. France has sent in 150 troops to help with evacuations and hundreds of foreigners have fled the country already.
An alliance of three rebel groups entered N'Djamena on Saturday morning after days of fighting outside the city. The rebels had crossed over the border with Sudan early last week and travelled east to the Chadian capital in a convoy of 300 vehicles within a matter of days. The suddenness of their offensive appears to have taken the military by surprise.
Some analysts believe the rebels' onslaught was timed to coincide with the planned arrival of advance teams of the EU mission, a UN-mandated force charged with protecting refugees who have fled the conflict in the neighbouring Sudanese region of Darfur and Chadians displaced by unrest in the east of the country.
More than 400 Irish troops are due to take part in the deployment, known as Eufor, which is under the overall command of Irish general Pat Nash.
One rebel group declared a "state of war" against French and other foreign forces last year in an apparent warning to the EU mission.
Last week a contingent of more than 50 Irish troops bound for Chad was turned back while en route to Dublin airport as word came that N'Djamena's airport had been closed due to the rebels' advance.
French defence minister Hervé Morin said yesterday that the deployment was being suspended until at least Wednesday because of the fighting but he dismissed any suggestion that the mission was in jeopardy. "Nobody has the intention of giving up this operation," he told Europe 1 radio.
In an interview published in Le Journal du Dimanche, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said he did not believe the rebel offensive would compromise the deployment.
Yesterday ambassadors from the European Union's 27 member states met under the aegis of the EU's Political and Security Committee for a briefing on the situation in Chad.
"The situation is being monitored carefully. The Political and Security Committee will review again what's happening there on Tuesday," an EU presidency spokeswoman said.
A Defence Forces spokesman said the eight Irish Army personnel already in Chad were safe and well.
All are staying in French military camps - four are in N'Djamena and the remaining four are in Abeche, the main town in eastern Chad.
Austria's defence minister, Norbert Darabos, said 17 Austrian soldiers already in Chad as part of the EU mission might be withdrawn because of the fighting.
"There is no direct threat on our advance unit according to all our information, but we do not want to take any unnecessary risks, however, and are planning a withdrawal," Mr Darabos said at the weekend.
He added that he would wait for further instructions from Eufor headquarters, "but everything seems to indicate at this time that we will withdraw our advance unit . . . as soon as the airport [ in N'Djamena] reopens".
The Defence Forces spokesman said no such plans were being considered in relation to the Irish Army personnel.
One rebel leader yesterday addressed concerns that the EU mission might be scuttled if the rebels succeed in overthrowing Mr Deby. Timane Erdimi said the rebel factions had been opposed to the presence of Eufor because they believed its aim was to prop up Mr Deby.
"Today, the situation has changed," he told Le Journal du Dimanche. "We are in N'Djamena, and if Eufor has the noble mission of protecting displaced people and refugees, we no longer see any problem in their presence."
Mr Erdimi also denied Mr Deby's claims that the rebels were armed and funded by Sudan, a denial echoed by the Sudanese government.