Chad investigates foiled attempt to storm presidential compound

Armed men tried to storm Chad's presidential palace when President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno was inside but 18 attackers and two soldiers were killed in the failed attack, the national prosecutor said Thursday.

Deby denounced what he called an attempt to "crush" him as national television showed images of more than 10 armed men at the entrance to the compound overcoming and beating the guards.

Heavy gunfire erupted near the presidential complex on Wednesday night and roads leading to the palace were blocked and tanks could be seen, an AFP reporter at the scene said at the time.

Government spokesman and foreign minister Abderaman Koulamallah and state prosecutor Oumar Kedelaye said a 24-member commando unit carrying "weapons, machetes and knives" faked a car breakdown and attacked the palace guards.

"They killed two soldiers and seriously wounded five others," Kedelaye declared, adding that 18 assailants were killed and six wounded.

Deby, who was propelled to power after rebels killed his father Idriss Deby in 2021, praised the guards who fought off the "malicious individuals".

"The attackers of this vain attempt aimed to crush me but they were crushed by the bravery, vigilance and courage of the Presidential Guard," he said in a message on Facebook.

The group came from a poor neighbourhood in the south of the capital N'Djamena and were drunk and high on drugs, Koulamallah said.

"The situation is completely under control... The destabilisation attempt was put down," he said, in a video posted on Facebook hours after the shooting, surrounded by soldiers and with a gun at his belt.

Questioned later on national television, Koulamallah said the attack was "probably not terrorist".

Beefed-up security and roadblocks set up late on Wednesday had been lifted the following morning around the presidential palace, where traffic was back to normal, AFP journalists saw.

Chad faces recurring attacks by the jihadist group Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region and abruptly ended a military accord with former colonial power France in late November.

Like other former French colonies Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which have forced French forces to pull out of their countries, Chad has sought closer ties with Russia.

Moscow "strongly condemns" the attack in N'Djamena "directed against the legitimate leadership" of Chad, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an ally of Moscow, in a message on X also voiced support for Chad after the attack.

Hours before the shootout, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Deby and other senior officials before leaving Chad to continue his tour of African countries in neighbouring Nigeria.

Videos circulating on social media claiming to have been filmed by soldiers at the entrance to the presidential palace showed security forces moving among bloodied corpses lying on the ground.

Other people could be seen alive and sitting on the ground, tied up.

They all appeared to be young men in civilian clothes.

An opposition figure voiced doubts about the government's account of events.

Max Kemkoye, spokesman for the Political Actors' Consultation Group (GCAP), spoke on Thursday of an "unfortunate synopsis" and a "set up" orchestrated by those in power.

The attack comes less than two weeks after Chad held a general election that the government hailed as a key step towards ending military rule but that was marked by low turnout and the opposition's call for a boycott amid allegations of fraud.

Deby won a five-year presidential mandate last May in a vote the opposition also denounced as fraudulent.

Chad gained independence from France in 1960 but the ensuing three decades were marred by instability, oppression, civil war and a Libyan invasion.