All calm on the streets of the capital after dawn attack

As taxis and cars start circulating again in the capital N’djamena, two corpses outside the parliament building and a nearby burned out government army truck were evidence of fierce fighting between rebel and government forces that briefly reached the city centre early on Thursday morning. N’djamena residents heard mortar shell explosions in the eastern and north eastern areas of the city around 5 a.m. local time, followed by heavy machine gun fire after dawn broke. Chad army helicopters have fired rockets at rebel positions on the eastern outskirts of the city, and French fighter jets have attacked a rebel stronghold 300 kilometres east of N’djamena, Chad military sources told IRIN. A spokesman for the French military said in Paris on Thursday lunchtime “we are undertaking exercises in Chad to preserve the security of French nationals”. He denied that French forces had attacked rebel positions though said that French planes had fired "warning shots". There are an estimated 1500 French nationals in Chad. France has a military cooperation agreement with Chad and has repeatedly opposed a power change through military means saying that polls should be allowed to take place. “The rebels don’t have the capacity to win. We will finish the hostilities within 24 hours,” said a Chad government spokesman while presenting to journalists 20 rebels captured overnight by the army. At least 300 rebel fighters with around 50 vehicles have been spotted around the city outskirts, say residents. Chadian police confirmed there had been fighting between rebel and government forces in the city centre. “It was a raid that didn’t follow any kind of military strategy - it was like committing suicide,” said Chadian President Idriss Deby in an interview with Radio France International on Thursday morning, adding that the army had “destroyed” several rebel columns. Deby said calm had returned to the city and elections scheduled for 3 May would go ahead as planned. Later in the morning residents reported hearing sporadic explosions and machine gun fire from outside the city but were able to move around freely. Exact details about the number, location and strength of forces opposed to the government have remained obscured since rebel forces opposed to President Deby started a lightening-fast dash across the vast desert-country at the weekend. It is not yet known whether there are more waves of fighters approaching N’djamena. UN agencies operating in the east of the country, where there are about one quarter of a million displaced Chadians and refugees who fled conflict in the neighbouring Darfur region of Sudan, have already scaled back to a skeleton staff over security concerns. Last month the UN’s World Food Programme warned that an increase in hostilities would jeopardise the agency’s ability to meet humanitarian needs. Several major towns across Chad, and a refugee camp, have briefly fallen into rebel hands but spokespeople for the fighters have made clear that their goal was always to reach the capital N’djamena, ahead of the controversial poll. Deby will be running for a third consecutive term in office after changing the constitution last year. Analysts say that many of the insurgents are former government soldiers who have defected to mount a challenge to Deby. At the same time, analysts say Deby’s capacity to deal with the rebellion has been hindered by the scale of these defections and the death of a senior military strategist in fighting at the end of March.