WADAI AMBUSH.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 820, 18 May 1910, Page 5

WADAI AMBUSH.

. FRANCE'S PUNITIVE MEASURES. By Tclesraph—Press Aesociation-Copyricht Paris, May 16. In February last a detachment of native troops under French officers was ambushed by. natives in Wadai, a French protectorate in the Central Sudan. Only eight of the native troops escaped, and the casualties on the French side were about 110. A French column in Wadai has now avenged this massacre, killing one hundred tribesmen. CAUGHT IN A NARROW DEFILE. In February it was reported that a column, commanded by Captain Fiegenscliuh, two lieutenants, and two wnite non-commissioned officers, and consisting of . 109 Senegalese sharpshooters and an unknown number 'of spearmen armed with riiles, had been ambused and cut to pieces by Wadians. Only eight sharpshooters and a few riflemen escaped to bring the bad news to Abeshr, the capital of Wadai. The Wadai country, situated to the north-east of Lake Chad, was ceded to France under the Fashoda convention. The pacification of this vast territory after five years of desultory fighting waa thought to have been completed by tlie. rout of the Sultan and the occupation of his capital of Abeshr h> July last. At the beginning of this year Captain Fiegeuschuh, in consequence of a letter he received from the Sultan of the Massalit' region- adjoining Abeshr, set out with a reconnoitring column .which on January -1 was surprised at a place called Abir Tauil. In a narrow defile with steep banks covered with rocks and prickly brushwood, among which the Wadians were ensconced, tho French were- taken completely off their guard, and were unable to offer an effective defence. Captain Fiegenschuh and Lieutenants Delacommune and Vasseur were killed, and practically the entire column was butchered. The delay in news of the disaster reaching France is explained- bj the distance between Abeshr and the nearest telegraph station. In announc-. in" the reverse Colonel Moll, commander. of° the Chad military territory, stated that he had taken all measures to reinforce the garrison of Abeshr, where there were about 500 French troops. I'elc«raphic orders were sent to Brazzaville for a company of soldiers there to place itself at tho disposition of Colonel Moll.