Battle of N'Djamena (2008) - Stalled Reinforcements

Stalled Reinforcements

During the battle, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Darfur rebel group, moved rapidly with a large column (100-200 vehicles, JEM has said) toward N'Djamena to fight at the government side; the RFC said they had pulled back from the city to face this threat. Sudan's official news agency stated that Chadian rebels had driven off government reinforcements moving toward the city from southern Chad. In the east of the country, the JEM fought to stop a force of 2,500 Chadian rebels that were on their way from Sudan to reinforce the troops outside N'Djamena. The Sudanese Air Force supported the Chadian rebels as they fought JEM forces near Adré on February 4. The Chadian rebels were narrowly defeated. Media favouring UFDD reported that an RFC column supposed to reinforce the rebel forces at N'Djamena was withdrawn by Timane Erdimi's orders following a leadership dispute with UFDD's leader Mahamat Nouri.