Chad asks Niger to help capture rebel leader

Bloomberg

Chad’s ruling junta rejected a call by a group of rebels for talks and asked Niger to help catch their leader who it believed is within its neighbour’s borders.
The Libya-based rebel group known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad has been fighting to overthrow the government since 2016. It , staged an incursion into northern Chad on April 11 and President Idriss Deby died of injuries sustained during a visit to the battlefront on April 20, according to the so-called transitional military council that subsequently assumed power.
“Some fleeing vehicles escaped from the combat zone towards the border with Niger,” General Azem Bermendao Agouna, the council’s spokesman, said in a statement read out on Tele Tchad. “The defense and security forces, pursued them with the support of the air force” and the rebels were subsequently located across the border, more than 375 miles from Chad’s capital N’Djamena, he said.
While the rebels have said they were ready to accept a ceasefire and find a political solution to the crisis, Agouna said “now isn’t the time for talks or dialog with outlaws.” Mahamat Mahdi Ali, the rebel’s leader is being sought by Libya’s attorney general for war crimes, and Chad called on Niger and a joint regional force known as G5 Sahel to help apprehend him and his forces, he said.