Cairo steps up aid

Press, 5 July 1983, Page 10

Cairo steps up aid

NZPA-Reuter Cairo Egypt would step up military aid to the Chadian Government of Hissene Habre to fight Libyanbacked rebels, a senior aide of President Hosni Mubarak said yesterday. Mr Osama Baz said: “We shall supply the legitimate government of Chad with enough military assistance to enable it to fight the rebels alone.” But he ruled out the dispatch of Egyptian troops to the former French colony. Libya has denied any complicity in Chad and accused Egypt and Sudan of planning to send troops to the Central African state. Mr Baz was speaking after an announcement in the Chadian capital, N’djamena, that Zaire had

sent three combat aircraft and 250 para-commandos to fight alongside President Habre’s forces, who are battling troops led by the former President, Goukouni Oueddei. He said that there were signs that the alleged Libyan complicity in Chad “will recede in a week’s time.”

“The weight of African nations which are opposed to Libya’s intervention combined with that of others who are willing to intervene on the side of Habre is increasing ... Libya will not be able to take this pressure,” he said. Egypt and Sudan, bound by close political and military ties and among Chad’s strongest supporters in Africa, last week threatened

to take what they called appropriate measures if the alleged Libyan presence in Chad continued.

The Egyptian-Sudanese statement came shortly after the rebels had captured the strategic town of Faya-Lageau, giving them control over the northern third of Chad. Zaire’s ambassador to Chad, Mr Linga Linga, said that the entire force, including Hercules transports, would be put at the disposal of Mr Habre.

The arrival of the crack Zairean commandos, one of three such battalions, was unexpected but came after a flurry of contacts between Mr Habre and anti-Libyan African States after Mr Goukouni’s rebels took Faya-Largeau on June 26.