Rebels attack northern Chad on presidential poll day

Rebels entered northern Chad on Sunday, the day of the country's presidential election, the army said, with the militia group claiming it had seized several garrison towns.

"A group of terrorists have been spotted in the Zouarke area in Tibesti province" around 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) north of capital N'Djamena, the armed forces said in a statement Monday.

Army spokesman Azem Bermandoa Agouna said the attackers had "so far chosen a strategy of avoiding defence and security forces", adding that "steps have been taken to neutralise" the incursion.

But the FACT group, mostly made up of Saharan Goran people, said its forces had taken "without resistance" garrisons including Wour and Zouarke, near Chad's borders with Niger and Libya.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Chadian border officer confirmed that rebels in around 100 vehicles had attacked the army position in Zouarke and captured it around 6 pm (1700 GMT) on Sunday.

Five key figures for Chad President Idriss Deby. By Alain BOMMENEL (AFP)

"At first the rebels took up positions on the outskirts of Wour, but the army didn't want to leave the town to face them, placing its tanks at the entrance. That forced the rebels to attack Zouarke," he said.

The Tibesti mountains near the Libyan frontier frequently see fighting between rebels and the army, and French air strikes were needed to stop an incursion there in early 2019.

In February 2008, a rebel assault reached the gates of the presidential palace before being pushed back with French backing.

Based in Libya where it has a non-aggression pact with Khalifa Haftar, the military strongman of the country's east, FACT emerged in 2016 when the UFDD group that led the 2008 offensive split.

Its leader Mahamat Mahdi Ali called on Chadians to "keep up pressure on the dictatorship" and "help FACT fighters free the homeland".

Battle over turnout

The incursion came on the same day as 30-year President Idriss Deby Itno was expected to win re-election.

Although vote-counting was finished in polling stations on Monday, preliminary results will not be announced until April 25 after a drawn-out compilation process.

Initial indications suggested large numbers of people stayed away from the vote, prompting the most entrenched among the opposition to claim their calls for a boycott of the polls had worked.

Vote-counting has already been completed in Chad's polling stations after the presidential election. By MARCO LONGARI (AFP)

"We got what we wanted: Chadians didn't vote, Chadians didn't elect Deby," longtime opponent Saleh Kebzabo told AFP Monday, saying the incumbent was "truly illegitimate" -- while Deby's camp claimed that huge numbers of people had voted.

The president's aim was "to win in the first round with sizeable turnout, so people can't object that he was unfairly elected," a diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP ahead of polling day.

An AFP journalist saw during vote-counting at a polling station in one pro-Deby district of N'Djamena that just 36 percent of voters had cast a ballot.

Deby ran on pledges of peace and security for the country and the wider Sahel region, and has sent troops to fight jihadists in neighbouring Nigeria and as far afield as Mali.