By DPA
N’Djamena/Paris : French Defence Minister Herve Morin arrived in the Chadian capital N’Djamena Wednesday as the rebels of the central African country seeking to overthrow President Idriss Deby were reported to be regrouping, French media reported.
Morin was scheduled to hold talks with Deby a day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that Paris would “do its duty” in case of an “aggression” against Chad.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner repeated his country’s stand Wednesday, telling Europe 1 radio that France could intervene because the UN Security Council had given Paris “not only the possibility but the obligation to help the legal government” in Chad.
However, RFI radio quoted a rebel spokesman as saying that the threat of French intervention would not keep them from renewing their attacks against the Deby government.
On Tuesday, the rebel groups had accepted a ceasefire brokered by Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi and the government of Burkina Faso, but Kouchner said Wednesday that the insurgents were regrouping.
He told Europe 1 that the rebels had assembled 100 to 200 military vehicles, but that their intent was not clear. “Will they attack again? Or will they withdraw, as we are hoping?” he asked.
In addition, RFI radio reported that another column of rebel vehicles was advancing to the capital from the east.
Kouchner also denied that France had intervened “in this war between Chadians.” He said that French soldiers had only used their weapons on a few occasions, “at the airport, and in the city… when they picked up people at the German and American embassies.”
The French foreign ministry said that French aircraft had evacuated more than 1,300 foreign nationals from the capital to Libreville in Gabon. In addition, an estimated 30,000 residents of the city fled during the fighting, most of them to Cameroon.
There was still no estimate of how many people were killed in the two days of intense fighting in N’Djamena last weekend, but RFI reported that the city’s morgue was “overflowing” and that the Chadian Red Cross was still removing bodies from the city’s streets.