Violence in Chad Leaves Minister Pleading For Help, France Threatens Military Action

France today threatened to take military action against rebels in Chad after the UN security council called on all member-states to support the Chadian government.
President Nicolas Sarkozy said France was ready to launch a military operation in Chad against the rebels if necessary. "If France must do its duty, it will do so," Sarkozy said.
The rebels have accused the former colonial power in Chad of already intervening in the fighting, by using helicopters and tanks to back President Idriss Déby and of causing civilian casualties.

In an exclusive IRIN interview, Chad's foreign minister Ahmat Allam-mi warns of a "catastrophic situation" in Central Africa unless the international community intervenes to help Chad stop the rebels who are currently surrounding the country's capital N'djamena.  
"We are going to have a dramatic and catastrophic situation in the whole sub-region," Allam-mi told IRIN in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where he was attending an African Union meeting.

Shelling and small arms fire erupted here in this capital on Monday, the third day of fighting between government troops and rebel forces, as thousands of residents fled the city in fear, the United Nations said.

After World War II,
France granted Chad the status of overseas territory and its
inhabitants the right to elect representatives to the French National
Assembly and a Chadian assembly. The largest political party was the
Chadian Progressive Party (PPT), based in the southern half of the
colony. Chad was granted independence on August 11, 1960 with the PPT's
leader, François Tombalbaye, as its first president.
Two years
later, Tombalbaye banned opposition parties and established a one-party
system. Tombalbaye's autocratic rule and insensitive mismanagement
exacerbated interethnic tensions. In 1965 Muslims began a civil war.
Tombalbaye was overthrown and killed in 1975, but the insurgency
continued. In 1979 the rebel factions conquered the capital, and all
central authority in the country collapsed. Armed factions, many from
the north's rebellion, contended for power. The disintegration of Chad
caused the collapse of France's position in the country. Libya moved to
fill the power vacuum and became involved in Chad's civil war. Libya's
adventure ended in disaster in 1987; the French-supported president,
Hissène Habré, evinced a united response from Chadians of a kind never
seen before and forced the Libyan army off Chadian soil. Habré consolidated his dictatorship through a power system that
relied on corruption and violence; an estimated 40,000 people were
killed under his rule. The president favoured his own Daza ethnic group
and discriminated against his former allies, the Zaghawa. His general,
Idriss Déby, overthrew him in 1990. 
Deby attempted to reconcile the
rebel groups and re-introduced multiparty politics. Chadians approved a
new constitution by referendum, and in 1996, Déby easily won a
competitive presidential election. He won a second term five years
later. Oil exploitation began in Chad in 2003, bringing with it hopes
that Chad would at last have some chances of peace and prosperity.
Instead, internal dissent worsened, and a new civil war broke out. Déby
unilaterally modified the constitution to remove the two-term limit on
the presidency; this caused an uproar among the civil society and
opposition parties. In 2006 Déby won a third mandate in elections that
the opposition boycotted. Ethnic violence in eastern Chad has
increased; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has warned
that a genocide like that in Darfur may yet occur in Chad.