NEWS- The Chad government have said that at least 19 people have been killed in Chad where security forces said they had prevented an attempt by armed fighters to storm the presidential complex in the capital N’Djamena.
It is reported that at least 18 of a force of 24 armed gunmen were killed in the failed assault on the president’s office yesterday evening, and one member of the security forces also died in the gun battles.
Chad’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Government spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah confirmed thar there were 18 dead and six injured among the attackers and the government suffered one death and three injured, one of them seriously.
Minister Koulamallah appeared in a video, shortly after the attack surrounded by soldiers and with a gun on his belt, saying that the situation is completely under control and the destabilisation attempt hard been put down.
The attack coincided with an official visit by China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Chad and hours before the shooting erupted, Wang Yi had met with Chad’s President Mahamat Idriss Deby and other senior officials.
According to Minister Koulamallah, President Deby was in the presidential complex at the time of the attack, but no further details were given.
