Two dozen armed men tried to storm into Chad’s presidential palace but 18 of the attackers and two soldiers died in the failed attack, the national prosecutor said Thursday.
Heavy gunfire erupted near the presidential complex just before 8:00pm local time (1900 GMT) on Wednesday in the centre of N’Djamena, the capital of the military-ruled, central African country.
An AFP reporter at the scene said at the time that roads leading to the presidential palace were blocked, and tanks could be seen on the streets.
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 seized 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”.
Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.
