at least 19 people have died after gunmen stormed the presidential complex in Chad’s capital N’Djamena armed commando unit shot inside the presidency on Wednesday January 8, in the evening around 7:45 p.m. (1845 GMT), before being overrun by the presidential guard.
Government spokesman and Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah told AFP that “There were 18 dead and six injured” among the attackers “and we suffered one death and three injured.
Later, Koulamallah was seen surrounded by soldiers and with a gun on his belt, saying “the situation is completely under control… the destabilisation attempt was put down”.
The attackers were suspected to be members of Boko Haram terror group, however Koulamallah later said they were “probably not” terrorists, describing them as drunken “Pieds Nickeles” — a reference to a French comic featuring hapless criminals.
They confronted four guards before entering the presidential complex, where they were “easily overpowered”, adding the surviving assailants were “completely drugged”.
Chad is under military rule and faces regular attacks by Boko Haram, especially in the western Lake Chad region that borders Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger.
The landlocked country recently ended a military agreement with former colonial power France and has been accused of interfering in the conflict ravaging neighbouring Sudan.
