The attack, which occurred on Wednesday evening, was carried out by a 24-member armed commando unit.
“There were 18 dead and six injured among the 24-strong commando unit that launched the assault, and we suffered one death and three injured, one of them seriously,” Koulamallah confirmed.
Initially, the attackers were suspected to be members of the Boko Haram terrorist group.
He referred to the assailants as “Pieds Nickelés,” a French comic reference for bungling crooks, and said the surviving attackers appeared “completely drugged”.
The armed group reportedly confronted four guards before breaching the presidential complex, where they were “easily overpowered.”
The attack comes amid ongoing security challenges in Chad, a nation under military rule that frequently faces threats from Boko Haram, especially in the western Lake Chad region.
The incident occurred just hours after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno and other senior officials, highlighting Chad’s strategic importance in international diplomacy.
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