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A key Chadian rebel leader yesterday welcomed comments by French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe suggesting that Paris was mulling a withdrawal of its troops from Chad.
“We are very pleased with Mr Juppe’s remarks. It’s a very good thing,” General Mahamat Nouri, head of the National Alliance for Change and Democracy (ANCD) said from Doha.
“France (Chad’s former colonial ruler) must abandon (Chadian President Idriss) Deby,” he added.
On Tuesday, Juppe said Paris was in talks with Chad over a new cooperation agreement and said the presence of around 1,000 French troops under Operation Epervier
(Sparrowhawk) was no longer justified and that they should be repatriated.
Yesterday, the French foreign ministry however would only say that a “discussion was under way” with Chad on the future of the French military force, which was first deployed in 1986 to deter a Libyan military offensive. Last August, Deby called for a revision of the military agreement between Chad and France, accusing Paris of paying nothing for its troop presence.
Nouri said his group had no hard feelings toward the French military contingent, which he said had always backed Deby.
“We (the rebels) would probably be in power were it not for the French troops,” he added.
In February 2008, Chadian insurgents reached the gates of the presidential palace in Ndjamena but the tide turned when France provided key intelligence and ammunition to government forces who were able to beat back the divided rebellion.
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