Chad parades rebel prisoners

He also showed reporters an ammunition box filled with ID cards and documents he claimed belonged to the rebels.

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Many of the documents were written in Arabic, while some ID cards were those of men belonging to the Rally of Forces for Change (RFC), a rebel group led by Timane Erdimi, a nephew of Idriss Deby, the Chadian president.

Bachir did not explain why the government had waited for more than a week after the February 2 attack on Ndjamena to present the prisoners.

 

Sudan blamed

Deby’s government accuses the Sudanese government of supporting the rebel coalition in Chad in order to export so-called “Arab Islamic militancy” across the Sahara.
 
Bachir said: “Even those who are Chadian are not really Chadian, they are mercenaries in the pay of Sudan.”

“They came to invade our country, they were sent by Omar al-Bashir [the Sudanese president] to come and destabilise not only Chad, but all of Africa.”
   
The minister said the captives would be treated as prisoners of war, even those who seemed to be under 18.