Sawt Falasteen - Chad says bid to storm into presidential palace foiled, 20 dead

Heavy gunfire erupted near the presidential complex just before 8:00 pm local time (1900 GMT) on Wednesday in the centre of N'Djamena, the capital of the military-ruled, central African country.

Roads leading to the presidential palace were blocked and tanks could be seen on the streets, an AFP reporter at the scene said at the time.

Government spokesman and foreign minister Abderaman Koulamallah said a 24-member commando unit carrying "weapons, machetes and knives" attacked the guards of the presidential palace before being swiftly stopped.

They "shammed a car breakdown to attack the guards in front of the gates of the presidential palace," state prosecutor Oumar Kedelaye said.

"They killed two soldiers and seriously wounded five others," he said, adding that 18 assailants were killed and six were wounded.

President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno was inside the palace at the time of the attack, the motive for which was still unclear.

Deby was propelled to power after rebels killed his father Idriss Deby in 2021. The older Deby had ruled Chad with an iron fist since a coup in the early 1990s.

The group was dressed in civilian clothing and came from a poor neighbourhood in the south of the city, Koulamallah said, describing them as drunken "Pieds Nickeles" -- a reference to a French comic featuring hapless crooks.

He said they were high on alcohol and drugs.

"The situation is completely under control... The destabilisation attempt was put down," he said, in a video posted on Facebook hours after the shooting, surrounded by soldiers and with a gun at his belt.

Questioned later on national television, Koulamallah said the attack was "probably not terrorist".

Beefed-up security and road blocks set up late on Wednesday had been lifted the following morning around the presidential palace, where traffic was back to normal, AFP journalists saw.

- 'Set up' -

Chad faces recurring attacks by the jihadist group Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region and abruptly ended a military accord with former colonial power France in late November.

Like other former French colonies, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger who have forced French forces to pull out of their countries, Chad has sought closer ties with Russia.

Moscow "strongly condemns" the attack in N'Djamena "directed against the legitimate leadership" of Chad, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an ally of Moscow, in a message on X also voiced support for Chad after the attack.

Hours before the shootout, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Deby and other senior officials before leaving Chad to continue his tour of African countries in neighbouring Nigeria.

Videos circulating on social media claiming to have been filmed by soldiers at the entrance to the presidential palace showed security forces moving among bloodied corpses lying on the ground.

Other people could be seen alive and sitting on the ground, tied up.

They all appeared to be young men in civilian clothes.

An opposition figure voiced doubts about the government's account of events.

Max Kemkoye, spokesman for the Political Actors' Consultation Group (GCAP), spoke on Thursday of an "unfortunate synopsis" and a "set up" orchestrated by those in power.

The attack comes less than two weeks after Chad held a general election that the government hailed as a key step towards ending military rule but that was marked by low turnout and the opposition's call for a boycott amid allegations of fraud.

Chad gained independence from France in 1960 but the ensuing three decades were marred by instability, oppression, civil war and a Libyan invasion.

Z.AlNajjar--SF-PST