Chadian authorities arrest suspects of 'failed coup'

Several people including an opposition MP have been arrested in the Chadian capital Ndjamena in what the government has described as an attempted "destabilisation plot." British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), monitored in Kuwait, quoted a government statement as saying a "small group" of persons had been conspiring for more than four months. Leaders of the alleged plot were being investigated by prosecutors, it added. Chad has a long history of coups and revolts. Current President Idriss Deby himself seized power in a coup in 1990. "A small group of ill-intentioned individuals attempted to carry out a destabilisation plot against the institutions of the republic," the government said in a statement. It added security forces "neutralised" them, without specifying how many people were involved in the alleged action. Police and opposition sources said opposition MP Saleh Makki was among those held. The security services also carried out a number of arrests in the army>. Since its independence from France in 1960, Chad's history has been marked by instability and violence stemming mostly from tension between the mainly Arab-Muslim north and the predominantly Christian and animist south. Earlier this year, Chad deployed some 2,000 troops to help oust "Islamists" who had seized large swathes of territory in Mali. Qatari news channel Al-Jazeera said the UFR, a Chadian rebel coalition that laid down its weapons in 2010, warned in March that they would relaunch their rebellion after Deby failed to enter talks with them. Last week, Deby accused neighbouring Libya of allowing Chadian mercenaries to set up a training camp from where they could seek to destabilise his country, a charge Libyan authorities rejected.