Nairobi - Rebel forces which for days have been marching on Ndjamena with some 300 vehicles have reached the Chad capital's outskirts, French media reports said Saturday. RFI radio said militiamen had been sighted in the capital's south and east, and also in the parliamentary building. Automatic weapons fire had been heard, and government troops were active in the area.
The latest reports followed clashes Friday around the city of Massaguet, some 50 kilometres away, after which both sides claimed victory.
The head of one of the three main rebel groups, Timan Erdimi, was reported to have demanded that Chadian President Idriss Deby open negotiations on power-sharing or there would be a full-blown war.
The French government beefed up its military presence in N'Djamena Friday with a company of 150 soldiers from its garrison in Libreville, Gabon, to protect French nationals in the capital.
France has had a force of 2,000 in its former colony since 1986.
As a result of the fighting, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said Friday it had evacuated most of its staff from the area of Guereda in eastern Chad.
The UNHCR team in the area said it had experienced several attacks in 72 hours, with gunmen in military uniforms breaking into its compound and threatening the guards with guns.
Some 3,700 EUFOR soldiers are expected on the Chad-Sudan border, across which refugees from Sudan's conflict-torn western Darfur region continue to pour.
A EUFOR spokesman said the mission did not want to get involved in a country's internal affairs.
