Chadians Come Out As Calm Returns

President Says Sudan Incited Rebel Attack

Women walk in N'Djamena, Chad's capital, where weekend battles between rebels and government forces left bodies in the streets. (By Jerome Delay -- Associated Press)

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By Craig Timberg

Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 7, 2008; Page A18

JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 6 -- Life eased toward normality Wednesday in Chad's capital of N'Djamena as a few shops reopened and people began venturing out of their homes on the quietest day since rebels attacked last week, according to humanitarian workers.

With the rebels in retreat, President Idriss D¿by, a former fighter pilot dressed triumphantly in military garb, summoned reporters to his presidential palace, spread his arms wide and declared, "Look at me, I'm fine," the Associated Press reported.

D¿by accused neighboring Sudan of instigating the rebel attack and said his government was "in total control, not only of the capital, but of all the country."

D¿by said only a quarter of the members of his government remained. "I do not know where the rest have gone," he said. "There are traitors. When the time comes we shall work on that issue."

The grim toll of several days of intense fighting came into focus as government forces consolidated their hold over the city.

Relief officials have collected 80 bodies from the streets of N'Djamena in the past two days, which brings the death toll to at least 148. Nicolai Panke, a top official in Chad for the International Committee of the Red Cross, predicted that the toll would reach at least 200, with more than 1,000 injured.

The Chadian Red Cross and government officials were attempting to identify as many of the dead as possible before burying them in mass graves, Panke said.

Tens of thousands of Chadian refugees, meanwhile, remained across the border in northern Cameroon and in neighboring Nigeria. U.N. relief officials said they had ordered 50,000 blankets, 10,000 emergency tents and 25 tons of soap.

There was little sign the refugees were ready to return to the capital.

"It is a bit better, but people are still waiting for a better day" before crossing the Chari River back into N'Djamena, Panke said.

Doctor Without Borders said 60,000 refugees had fled to the town of Kousseri in northern Cameroon.

"The needs are also very serious there," said Caroline De Coster, a spokeswoman for Doctors Without Borders. "We don't see any Chadians going back to N'Djamena."

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