The U.S. and France fail to stop a Libyan advance
Rising as suddenly as a Sahara sandstorm, the little war in the Central African nation of Chad turned increasingly ominous and ugly last week. With the help of intensive Libyan bombing raids, rebel forces seized the northern town of Faya-Largeau (pop. 7,000). In the process, they reduced much of the mud-and-brick oasis to rubble. As many as one-third of the Chadian government's 3,000 soldiers were reported to be dead, wounded or captured, and hundreds more were stranded in the north. Others, retreating before what the government called "murderous nonstop" Libyan air strikes, proceeded to set up a new defense line some 200 miles to the south.
In an effort to check Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi's expansionist aims, President Reagan had dispatched $25 million worth of military aid, two AWACS electronic surveillance planes, eight F-15 fighter escorts and a reconnaissance plane to the area. After some hesitation, French PresidentFrançois Mitterrand agreed last week to send 300 elite paratroopers as "trainers" and "advisers." But given the size of the Libyan commitment, which included 2,500 ground troops and impressive airpower, the limited U.S. and French assistance failed to turn the tide. In a press conference after the fall of Faya-Largeau, Reagan indicated that the Administration would not be sending further help for the time being. He noted that the U.S. could not play the role of "world policeman," and urged France to take the lead in Chad. "It is not our primary sphere of influence," the President said. "It is that of France."
Chadian President Hissene Habré, too, looked to France for aid, particularly air support to offset the dominance of Libyan aircraft over northern Chad. Said Information Minister Soumalia Mahamat: "French airpower is indispensable against Libyan airpower." He also appealed for the use of French combat forces. "If French troops are here merely as instructors," he argued, "it doesn't matter whether there are 1,000 or 100,000."
Many government soldiers who escaped the final assault of the Libyan and rebel forces on Faya-Largeau were fleeing across the desert toward the eastern town of Abéché and the capital city of N'Djamena, 400 miles to the southwest. Evidence of the scale and intensity of the Libyan air raids could be seen in N'Djamena's public hospital, to which some 140 soldiers had been brought. They had been flown out of Faya-Largeau at night when government forces could still use the town's unpaved airstrip. Evacuation of the injured ended abruptly when Libyan bombing raids put the airstrip out of action. After that, the wounded died amid the ruins of the town that, in the seesaw fighting for control of the north, they had actually recaptured from their enemies only ten days earlier.