Chad army retakes Abeche town from rebels-minister

N'DJAMENA, Nov 26 (Reuters) Chad's armed forces retook control of the eastern military centre of Abeche today after rebels who took the town a day earlier fled, Defence Minister Bichara Issa Djadallah said.

''Abeche has been taken in its totality ... The rebels fled at 4 a m (8.30 IST) this morning,'' Djadallah told Reuters in the capital N'Djamena.

Rebels of the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) overran Abeche, 160 km (100 miles) from the border with Sudan, in an attack early yesterday, when government forces said they withdrew from the town to avoid civilian casualties.

Aid workers in Abeche said a Chadian army helicopter had been circling over the town on Sunday morning, and around a dozen army vehicles carrying Chadian soldiers had moved into the town in the early hours.

The aid workers said there was no sign of fighting, although a few shots had been fired to the east of the town centre.

Yesterday's attack prompted looting of government buildings in the town, and aid workers said several humanitarian installations were targeted overnight, including residences of humanitarian workers.

Abeche is the centre of a massive aid effort to help some 200,000 Sudanese who have fled to camps in eastern Chad to escape violence at home in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Chadian President Idriss Deby accuses Sudan's government of sponsoring rebel groups trying to overthrow him, while Sudan in return accuses Chad of backing rebel Darfuri factions.

REUTERS BDP KN1403