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By Francis Earl A. Cueto, Reporter
THE Department of Foreign Affairs announced on
Thursday that all of the 352 registered overseas Filipino workers in
the country of Chad are now safe and far from danger caused by
internal strife in the central African country.
In a statement sent to The Manila Times, Foreign
Affairs spokesman Claro Cristobal said all the 352 Filipinos in Chad
are now safe despite the fierce fighting between government forces
and rebels from a failed coup attempt over the last weekend, which
left at least 100 people dead and about 700 others wounded.
Cristobal, quoting Philippine Ambassador to
Tripoli in Libya, Bayani Mangibin, said that based on the contacts
done by the embassy, the 352 Filipinos employed by Industrial
Maintenance International (IMI) for a project of Esso, the biggest
oil and gas project in the Republic of Chad, are now far from
danger.
“IMI has assured the embassy that it has the
means to evacuate all its workers from Chad should that be
needed,” Cristobal said.
The United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees
reported that thousands of people have taken refuge in northern
Nigeria after fleeing a bloody rebel assault on the Chadian capital
of N’Djamena.
Strife-torn country
Chad is a landlocked country in central Africa,
bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central
African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the
southwest, and Niger to the west.
Reports said Chad President Idriss Deby, who is
accused by opponents of plundering the country’s oil revenues and
leaving the population in poverty, appeared in public for the first
time on Thursday to declare he was still in charge.
Ambulance workers began retrieving rotten
corpses from the Chad capital’s dusty streets as its government
tried to restore an air of normality following the failed coup
attempt.
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