Word: airlift
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...relative calm returned to the streets of N'Djamena after rebel forces withdrew Sunday to the outskirts of the Chadian capital following a weekend of heavy fighting with government troops. The lull in the violence allowed the French Army to airlift over 800 foreigners out of Chad, 202 of whom touched down in Paris Sunday, tired but unharmed. The rebels retreated in the face of a successful counter-offensive mounted by units loyal to President Idriss Déby. But fears remained high in N'Djamena and abroad that the retreat is temporary and that the bloodletting...
...Thousands of Chadian civilians flocked from N'Djamena Monday ahead of a feared resurgence in fighting in the coming hours or days. Rebel leaders pledged to finish off the government forces in N'Djamena once they'd regrouped, and threatened to attack an airbase French troops are using to airlift foreigners caught up in the fighting. The insurgents claim the airlifts served as cover for the rocket-firing Chadian army helicopters, which operate out of the same airstrip and that pounded rebel positions...
...Thousands of N'Djamena residents took that swaggering as a sure sign it was time to flee, and French troops picked up the pace of their airlift. By noon Monday, the French Army said it had transported more than 800 foreign nationals to Gabon, around 570 of whom have been flown on to France. Another 200 are waiting to be evacuated from Chad. Around 1,500 French soldiers are stationed in Chad under bilateral security accord...
...reiterate his support. Those officials wouldn't say whether any plans were afoot to evacuate Déby to Paris, however. And while France dispatched an additional 150 soldiers from Gabon to join the permanent 1,450 French troops posted in Chad, their mission seemed to be to help airlift foreign citizens to safety rather than to save the government...
...governments in its former African colonies, Elysée spokesman David Martinon stressed that the focus of the French government was "assuring that all the arrangements had been made to assure the safety of our nationals". Paris dispatched a French Army Airbus to N'Djamena Saturday to begin an airlift back to France when the situation allows it, but showed none of the readiness to put down a rebellion that had had been par for the course when Paris still considered Francophone Africa as France's back yard...