France threatens military action against Chad rebels

France today threatened to take military action against Rebels in Chad after the United Nations security council called on all member-states to back up the Chadian government.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said French Republic was ready to establish a military operation in Chad against the Rebels if necessary. "If French Republic must make its duty, it will make so," Sarkozy said.

The Rebels have got accused the former colonial powerfulness in Chad of already intervening in the fighting, by using choppers and army tanks to endorse President Idriss Déby and of causing civilian casualties.

The Rebels state Gallic choppers and tanks, which are portion of a 1,400-strong military contingent in Chad, fired on Rebels near the airdrome yesterday. Gallic military personnel have got got helped evacuate aliens from the capital, N'djamena.

"France have involved itself directly in the struggle ... they've caused civilian victims," a Rebel spokesman, Henchi Ordjo, told Reuters.

Sarkozy's menace came follows three years of fighting that endangers the deployment of an europium peacekeeping operation military unit in eastern Chad to protect 240,000 Darfuri refugees and 180,000 Chadians driven from their homes.

The Rebels surprised authorities military units and seized much of the working working capital over the weekend but the authorities now looks to have won back control. At least 15,000 people have got fled to neighbor Cameroon, states the United Nations refugee agency.

The Gallic military have been drawn into fighting in Chad in the past. In 2006, they helped drive another Rebel assault on N'djamena, much to the choler of Déby's opponents.

Déby have alienated many Chadians by changing the fundamental law so he can run for an unprecedented 3rd term in office. Opponents also impeach the president of siphoning much of Chad's oil wealth, either for his ain benefit or for members of his Zagawa clan, who do up only 3% of Chad's population.

Chadian Rebels state they would back a ceasefire only if Déby stairway down.

The Rebels dwell of three groups. The largest, the United Military Unit for Democracy and Development, is led by Mahamat Nouri, a former member of Déby's government. He was working as the Chadian embassador to Saudi Arabian Arabian Peninsula when he defected to the Rebels two old age ago.

The combat in Chad could have got major deductions for efforts to stop the struggle in the distant Darfur part of Sudan. Chad have got accused Republic Of The Republic Of The Sudan of supporting the Rebels to halt peacekeepers getting too near to Darfur.

Sudan denies the complaints and impeaches Chad of supporting the five-year rebellion in Darfur, where more than than 200,000 people have died.

Many Darfur Rebels hail from the same ethnical grouping as Déby, who have offered them his championship since the uprising began.