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     2	One battle, but not the war
       
     3	Chad - April 16 2006 - J. A. Christopher Boisbouvier A. 
       
     4	What a raid! 500 miles in 3 days. When he was a rebel himself, Colonel Deby Itno was never so audacious... "I've never seen that," he confided to a French officer of the ?{Sparrow division}. For better or for worse, the ?assault some fifty vehicles of Mahamat Nour's FUC (The Front for Democratic Change) will take its place in the annals of military history. 
       
     5	It began on March 30th. ?{Chief of the Defense Staff of ground forces}, General Abakar Youssouf Itno, is killed in combat with several officers, some 60 miles south of Adre. He was the nephew of the head of state. The morale of the troops is diminishing. On April 9th, Mahamat Nour launches his great offensive. He doesn't attack Adre, as he had last December 18th. Too many government forces. He tightens the lock down on the South. One of his columns heads toward the village of Goz-Beida, not far from the Sudanese border. But in a brilliant feint, another column of some thirty vehicles in all, ?immediately takes off secretly across the plains of central Africa and attacks the villages of Salamat, Haraze-Mangueigne and Am Timan. The surprise is total. The garrisons ?fall. 
       
     6	The Chadian sky echoes with thunder. On April 11th, the two rebel columns converge and take Mongo, the capital of Guera, 250 miles from the border. It seems that nothing can stop the rebels. The way to N'Djamena is open. 
       
     7	The only encounter on the morning of the 12th: near Ngama, a French Mirage takes a shot a few hundred meters from the column. "A warning shot," Paris calls it. They move on, unstoppable. Dourbali, then Ligna, now just some twenty miles from the capital. Leading the charge, a hardened soldier, Mahamat Issa. He studied at the ?{War College} in Paris. Ready to face him, a man just as determined, Idriss Deby Itno. He decides to remain in the palace. Hinda, his new wife, refuses to evacuate. "We will fight," he says to an ?interviewer at midnight. There is no trace of emotion in his voice. 
       
     8	It is at this moment that the battle of N'Djamena begins. The Chadian army counter attacks in Ligna. The rebels suffer losses, but do not forsake their mission. At dawn on the 13th, their lead contingent arrives before the ?{National Assembly}, the entrance to the capital. More combat. The people of N'Djamena awake to cannonfire. Panic in the city. Around 7 in the morning, the army takes the upper hand. More deaths in the ranks of the FUC. Some vehicles are destroyed. The president ??{se rend sur place}. At 8:30 local time, he announces in a tinny voice on the RFI: "The situation is under control." 
       
     9	Clearly. But, the raid is clear evidence that Mahamat Nour's rebels have established themselves to be unbelievably daring. Surely they've already described it on their web site. They're equipped with brand new weapons and uniforms. They're even wearing bulletproof vests. Their ?selection of four-by-fours is impressive. Several hundred vehicles. It's obvious that friendships with the Sudanese have their benefits. 
       
    10	But the problem is that the lines of communication stretch over 500 miles. How many rebels were ?stationed to the east of N'Djamena after the battles on the 12th and the 13th of April? ?{How long would they remain that far from their bases?} "Their strategy is suicidal," affirms Idriss Deby Itno. "It's a strategic ??dérapage," replies Timane Erdimi, one of the rebel chiefs of ?Scud. "You can't cross the Sudanese frontier without support behind you and just go charging into N'Djamena." 
       
    11	For now, the Chadien chief of state has nothing to be feeling triumphant about. It's true that he handled this confrontation with a steel will and skill. After a few hours of hesitation on the night of the 11th, he decided not to call in his eastern front to reinforce the capital's defenses. A risky strategy, but it paid off. In one move he saved Adre and N'Djamena. But for how long? 
       
    12	After the ??rezzou of Mahamat Nour, the Chadian army seemed ?{bien mal en point/poorly prepared}. It has two fortified bases, in the east and the west. But in the rest of the country, nothing. The proof, this ??déferlante rebellion on ?? The defection of the Erdimi brothers in October of 2005 has turned out to be very costly to the regime. Idriss Deby Itno has won a battle, which resulted in 400 deaths, according to N'Djamena. The war, that's something else. J.A. Christophe Boisbouvier A.
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