Attack on Presidential Complex in Chad: 19 Dead

A Chadian government spokesman said 18 attackers and a presidential guard were killed in an attack on the presidential complex in the Chad capital N'Djamena on Wednesday night.

Abderaman Koulamallah, who also serves as foreign minister in the Central African country under military rule, said the attackers tried to storm the presidential palace while President Mahamat Déby Itno was inside.

Koulamallah said in a statement early on Thursday that 24 attackers armed with knives and machetes went to the presidency in several vehicles that appeared to have broken down at the entrance, got out and stabbed four entrance guards, killing one and wounding two. He said they then entered the presidential compound, where other guards shot at them, killing 18 people and detaining six.

Like other countries in the region, Chad has been repeatedly attacked by insurgent groups linked to Islamic State, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram for more than a decade.

But Koulamallah said Wednesday's attack was "probably" not an act of terrorism and referred to the attackers as drunken "Pieds Nickeles", a reference to a French comic strip about bumbling crooks.