NAIROBI, Kenya — Hundreds of rebels penetrated the capital of Chad on Saturday, clashing with government troops and moving on the presidential palace after a three-day advance through the oil-producing central African nation, officials and witnesses said.
Chad's ambassador to Ethiopia said the capital had not fallen and President Idriss Deby was "fine" in his palace.
"The situation is under control," ambassador Cherif Mahamat Zene told The Associated Press. "The head of state is fine in his palace. … It's true that there are some rebels who have entered the city, but to say the city has fallen is false."
A French military spokesman, Col. Thierry Burkhard, said that Chadian government forces were pushing rebels away from the presidential palace but that the outcome of the fighting Saturday remained unclear.
Chad, a French colony until 1960, has been convulsed by civil wars and invasions since independence, and the recent discovery of oil has only increased the intensity of the struggle for power.
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The rebel force is believed to be a coalition of three groups, including the biggest led by former diplomat Mahamat Nouri, who defected 16 months ago, and a nephew of Deby's, Timan Erdimi. They long have been fighting to overthrow Deby, whom they accuse of corruption.
The rebels also have said they were unhappy with the president not providing enough support to rebels in Sudan's Darfur region, some of whom are from Deby's own tribe, the Zaghawa, who are found both in Chad and Sudan.
The renewed fighting has led the European Union to delay its peacekeeping mission in both Chad and neighboring Central African Republic, which was due to be up and running early next month, said Commandant Dan Harvey, speaking in Paris on Friday. The deployment of the advance force could be postponed for days, he said.
The force already has met repeated delays. It is aimed at protecting refugees from Darfur, which borders Chad, as well as protecting Chadians and Central Africans displaced by turmoil in their own countries.
The news that rebels reached Chad's capital broke just as African leaders were listening to the closing speeches of a three-day summit in Addis Ababa. Members of the Chad delegation refused to comment to The Associated Press.
The new head of the African Union said the bloc would not recognize Chadian rebels should they seize power.
"If the rebellion succeeds, certainly we will excommunicate them from the African Union until normalcy and democratic institutions are restored in that country, if it has to happen that way at all," Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete told a news conference.
The United Nations decided to temporarily evacuate all its staff from Chad's capital.
The U.S. Embassy said that any American citizens seeking evacuation should immediately move to the embassy. A spokesman said the embassy had authorized the departure of nonessential personnel and family members.
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