EU peacekeeping mission to Chad postponed[fr][de] 

The Eufor Chad/CAR mission is "postponed until the security situation stabilises," Commandant Dan Harvey, the mission's spokesperson, said on Sunday (3 February).

3,700 EU soldiers, including over 1,300 French troops, had been preparing to depart on a mission to protect humanitarian workers and refugees from the Darfur conflict in eastern Chad.

But the plans were scuppered following a heavy three-day offensive by rebel groups, who stormed the Chadian capital on Sunday as part of a wider surge from bases in the country's east and north, near the borders with Sudan and Libya.

The situation in N'Djamena over the weekend was "bloody and chaotic", according to press reports.

The rebels, widely believed to be backed by the Sudanese government, are attempting to overthrow Chad's president Idriss Déby, who has ruled the country for nearly 18 years. Déby was reportedly under siege and trapped in his palace on Sunday.

Latest press reports however indicate that Chadian government troops under Déby's command have succeeded in driving the rebels to the eastern part of the capital. But rebel commanders are promising another offensive once civilians have had a chance to flee the fighting. 

Oil-rich Chad has had a violent and troubled history since its independence from French colonial rule in 1960. Thirty years of civil war, incursions from Libyan forces and endemic poverty have plagued Chad, with relative peace achieved only in 1990. 

Some observers fear the country's relative calm under Déby may now be unwinding. France, which maintains a small troop contingency in Chad, has provided military support during previous rebel takeover attempts. 

But French troops have been less engaged in the fighting this time. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is apparently seeking a departure from the policies of his predecessory Jacques Chirac, preferring not to use French troops to back the regimes of France's former colonies, according to Henri Boshoff of the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, South Africa.

EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel on Friday (1 February) condemned the rebel attacks and expressed his "strong preoccupation" with the situation.