Chad: at least six killed in fighting between rebel group and armed forces

Clashes between the Chadian army and the MPRD rebel group have killed at least six people in the country's south, both sides said Wednesday.

The fighting erupted Tuesday morning in Korbol, in the Moyen-Chari region, leaving three soldiers dead and 10 wounded, the army said in a statement.

MPRD leader Luc Beyam Bebha said the rebels had lost three "martyrs" and had two fighters wounded. Chad has been ruled for more than three decades by the same family - late president Idriss Deby and now his son Mahamat - and is frequently rocked by rebel offensives, which sometimes reach the capital, N'Djamena.

The latest clashes broke out when "an army column attempted to approach MPRD positions and was ambushed", Remadji Hoinathy, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), told AFP. He said the military had recently been reinforcing its presence in the region, which borders the Central African Republic. The MPRD said the army had given it an ultimatum Sunday to surrender. The group - the Movement for Peace, Reconciliation and Development - was launched in southern Chad in 2003.

"The group has a very clear demand: to overthrow the current system," Hoinathy said.

Mahamat Deby was declared transitional president by the army in 2021 after his father was killed by rebels, then won election in 2024 in contested polls boycotted by much of the opposition.