Chad: Rebel chief threatens oil region attack

A CHADIAN rebel leader overnight threatened to attack Chad’s southern oil-producing Doba region unless France and the US put pressure on President Idriss Deby to start a dialogue with his foes.

Timane Erdimi, head of the Rally of Forces for Change (RFC) which attacked Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, early in February along with other rebels groups, said his forces could halt oil production from installations in southern Chad pumping up to 160,000 barrels per day (bpd).


“We can carry the war to the south … if the Americans and the French don’t put pressure on Deby to open an all-inclusive dialogue with political and military players,” Erdimi said.

He said the Doba basin, where US oil major Exxon Mobil Corp heads a consortium pumping 140,000-160,000 bpd of oil via a pipeline to Cameroon’s Atlantic coast, could become a military target unless Paris and Washington did more to achieve a political settlement.

“We could quite easily halt the flow of oil,” he said.

The Australian