Defence Ministry denies losing 25 troops

Chad's Defense Ministry denied on Tuesday a rebel claim that their forces had killed 25 government troops in a shootout at the northern locality of Zouar.

The leader of the Mouvement pour la justice et la dmocratie au Tchad (MJDT), Youssouf Togoimi, said over Radio France International on Monday that his forces had shot dead 25 government army troops.

However, the ministry said that two rebels and one government soldier were killed when loyal units from the Zouar garrison clashed with a group of rebels on Monday.

Togoimi's movement has been fighting to overthrow the government from the mountainous northern Tibesti region which Ndjamena says it still controls. Nevertheless, there are frequent reports of rebels attacks in the area. In an incident early in November 1999, 28 government troops were reportedly wounded and 37 guerrillas killed in the northern districts of Omou and
Aozou.

Togoimi is a former defence and interior minister and has been fighting the government since October 1998. The movement failed to enter the capital, Ndjamena by the end December 1999, as it had predicted.

In December 1999, 13 armed political movements forged a new alliance in Paris against Chadian President Idriss Deby. The group, calling itself the Coordination des mouvements armes et politiques de l'opposition (CMAP), does not include Togoimi's which is the most active guerrilla force.