Three killed in foiled Chad coup: government

At least three people were killed in a foiled coup attempt in Chad, the foreign minister said today, and several arrested over the plot in the chronically unstable former French colony.
Security services had for months been monitoring "a group of individuals who were preparing a plot against the state's institutions" and swooped on one of their meetings in the capital yesterday, Moussa Faki said.
Some of them "responded by firing on the security forces. One officer was shot dead and in response two members of the group were gunned down. The others were arrested," Faki said on the sidelines of a meeting in Brazzaville.

A police source told AFP earlier today that "several" people had been killed and around 15 others injured in a shootout between security forces and the alleged conspirators on the outskirts of N'Djamena a day earlier.
Speaking before the foreign ministry update, some police sources spoke of six deaths, while others claimed eight were killed in the incident, "three of whom were security forces".
The government serving under President Idriss Deby Itno, who himself came to power in a 1990 coup, yesterday said a "small group" had been planning "a destabilisation plot" while police and opposition sources said one of the detainees was an opposition lawmaker.

A police source said soldiers and civilians also took part in the alleged plot.

The situation appeared calm in the Chadian capital today, with residents going about their usual day-to-day activities.
"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 yesterday.
It added that the army had "neutralised" the group and that the arrested ringleaders had been handed over to prosecutors for investigation.
"This small group... Had been conspiring for more than four months to jeopardise the country's hard-won peace," it said.
Between 2005 and 2010, Deby's regime faced rebellions that destabilised large swathes of the vast country.

On Saturday, Deby told Radio France Internationale that "mercenaries", currently in Libya's second largest city Benghazi, were trying to "regroup Chadians".
A police source said that "several civilians and soldiers, including Saleh Makki," an opposition lawmaker, had been arrested.