According to the administration, one security guard was murdered, three others were wounded, and 18 of the dead were gunmen.
The administration reported that 18 assailants and one member of the security forces were killed in the battle that broke out after gunmen attacked the presidential compound in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad.
Tanks were spotted on the street, and armed men attempted to rush the compound, according to security sources. Reporters from the AFP news agency heard gunfire near the site in N’Djamena on Wednesday.
The government subsequently said that 18 of the 19 people killed in the firefight were part of the 24-person group that initiated the attack.
Foreign Minister and government spokeswoman Abderaman Koulamallah told AFP, “There were 18 dead and six injured among the attackers, and we suffered one death and three injured, one of them seriously.”
Armed police officers were spotted at various locations across the center as residents hurried out in automobiles and motorcycles.
Less than two weeks had passed since the contentious general election in the landlocked nation in northern Africa when the gunshots broke out.
Although it was characterized by poor turnout and accusations of fraud from the opposition, the government celebrated it as a significant step toward abolishing military rule.
The election was held in the midst of ongoing attacks in the Lake Chad region by the Islamist group Boko Haram, the termination of a military agreement with France, the country’s former colonial master, and charges that Chad was meddling in the war raging in neighboring Sudan.
Wang Li, China’s foreign minister, met with President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno and other top officials a few hours earlier on Wednesday.
The final French bases in the Sahel
The former French colony housed France’s final military installations in the Sahel, but it terminated the defense and security pacts with Paris at the end of November, claiming they were “obsolete.”
There were about 1,000 French soldiers stationed there, and they are currently being evacuated.
France is currently reorganizing its military presence in Africa following its expulsion from three Sahelian nations—Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger—run by anti-Paris juntas.
France has also been urged to withdraw its military sites in Senegal and Ivory Coast.
After his father, who had governed the Sahel nation for thirty years, passed away in 2021, Deby assumed leadership.
His administration has come under fire from the nation’s opposition for being oppressive and dictatorial.
Despite producing oil, the desert nation is ranked fourth from the bottom on the UN Human Development Index (HDI).
Deby has reorganized the army, which has historically been controlled by his mother’s ethnic group, the Zaghawas and Gorane, in an effort to strengthen his hold on power.
He has pursued new strategic alliances on the diplomatic front, such as those with Hungary and Russia.
