Fighting erupted again today around the presidential palace in the Chadian capital N'Djamena where rebels forces have surrounded President Idriss Deby and loyalist troops.
Residents said the sound of heavy weapons and machine gun fire could be heard coming from the direction of the presidency complex in the centre of the dusty capital.
France's defence minister Herve Morin said today that he believed that Chad 's chief of staff had died in fighting between rebel and government troops.
Chad's military claimed this evening it had beaten back an attack by a mixed force of Sudanese army troops and allied rebels and militia on one of its main eastern border towns.
On Friday the EU postponed the deployment of units of its peacekeeping mission to the central African country. A spokesman for Lt-Gen Pat Nash, the Irish commander of the mission, said that the deployment had been suspended for the time being.
54 Irish troops were due to be deployed in Chad to make up the first batch of 450 Irish military personnel embarking on peacekeeping and refugee-protection duties. The troops were diverted back to McKee Barracks on Friday while they were en route to Dublin airport.
Meanwhile rebels seeking to topple Deby fought their way into the capital yesterday and encircled the palace, demanding that the president leave. But at least two government ministers said that he was remaining inside at the head of loyal troops.
France has evacuated around 400 foreigners from Chad , French Defence Minister Herve Morin said today.
"We have evacuated around 400 people, all of whom wished to leave of their own accord," Morin told French radio station Europe 1.
Yesterday, France sent over four planes to N'Djamena to fly out foreigners from the Chad capital. The passengers are due to arrive in Paris later on Sunday.
Foreign citizens were also sheltering in the Meridien hotel in the capital, waiting to be evacuated.
"Day only broke 20 minutes or a half hour ago and the heavy artillery has already begun," Katie-Jay Scott of the humanitarian organisation Stop Genocide Nowwrote early today from the Meridien hotel in a blog posted on the group's website.