Chadian rebels said today they planned an offensive to try to oust President Idriss Deby, who vowed to resist and pursue them in neighbouring Sudan if necessary.
Mohamed Nour, president of the recently formed rebel group, Rally for Democracy and Liberty (RDL), told Reuters in a telephone interview that an attack by his forces on a Chadian border town last Sunday was a purely tactical move.
"We only used less then one sixth of our troops in that attack," he said in his first interview since the fighting over the town of Adre on Chad's eastern border with Sudan.
Chad's government says it is firmly in control of Adre, and Deby, who has dismissed the rebels as "adventurers", visited the town on Thursday to rally its inhabitants and government troops.
Nour said a major rebel attack would happen "probably in the coming few days", but declined to say where. "It could even be on N'Djamena," Nour said, referring to the Chadian capital.
In his visit to Adre, Deby accused Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government of directing Sunday's rebel assault on the town.
"Chad's national army has received orders to defend our border but also to use its right of pursuit to catch inside Sudanese territory any attacker who harms Chad," he told a rally in the town's main square.
The fighting over Adre has raised tensions in the neighbouring region of Darfur where Sudanese rebels have fought Sudan's central government for almost three years.