All 352 OFWs in Chad safe

MANILA, Philippines – All 352 overseas Filipino workers in strife-torn Chad are safe, the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

Quoting Ambassador to Tripoli, Libya Bayani Mangibin, DFA spokesman Claro Cristobal said the 352 workers are employed by Industrial Maintenance International (IMI) for ESSO Project, the biggest oil and gas project in Chad.

“IMI has assured the embassy that it has means to evacuate all its workers from Chad should that be needed,” he said.

The embassy is monitoring the situation in the Chad capital of Ndjamena after rebels surrounded President Idriss Deby in his palace and hundreds of foreigners fled.

French Defense Minister Herve Morin said the new fighting could be “crucial” in the battle for control of the former French colony in Central Africa.

Reports said the offensive by three rebel commanders has opened up a new conflict next to Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region.

The deployment of a European peacekeeping mission in Chad and the Central African Republic has been suspended, Morin said in Paris.

The fighting closed in on the airport and forced a temporary halt to the airlift of foreigners.

But the French military said a Hercules plane carrying 104 people left this morning in a calm period in the unrest.

The United Nations said it would evacuate all UN personnel.

Staff members of the United States embassy were taken to a French military base to be flown out.      – Pia Lee-Brago