Three stories (updated originally both to add the one from Reuters and to switch the one from AFP to represent a better version; updated further to add the IRIN story):
From AFP...
Almost 50 people have been killed in a village in eastern Chad during an attack by an armed group from neighbouring Sudan and subsequent clashes with Chadian forces, the government spokesman said Tuesday.
The attack took place in the eastern Wadai region on Monday morning, Hurmaji Musa Dumgor said in a statement.
"Armed and uniformed horsemen from Sudan infiltrated Chadian territory on Monday between 8:00 and 9:00 am (0700 and 0800 GMT)... and took to massacring Chadian people and stole their livestock," he said.
"The Chadian armed forces responded rapidly," he added, saying the soldiers had killed eight of the attackers and captured seven.
The horsemen had earlier killed at least 36 villagers in Madayun, according to army sources.
Eastern Chad borders on the Darfur region of Sudan, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than a million displaced since rebels rose up in February 2003, prompting a fierce response from government forces and allied militia.
The most notorious of these allies are the Janjaweed, armed men on horse- and camel-back widely condemned by human rights groups for their atrocities against civilians.
From Reuters...
Gunmen on horseback coming from Sudan attacked a village in neighbouring Chad, killing 36 people and stealing their cattle, the Chadian government said on Tuesday.
It said the Chadian military had repelled the attackers, killing eight and capturing seven. Two Chadian soldiers were killed in the clashes.
"Armed horsemen wearing military uniforms and coming from Sudan penetrated yesterday into Chadian territory between 8 and 9 o'clock in the morning," a government statement said.
"The attackers killed 36 herders and tried to take away several head of cattle," it said, adding the army had retrieved the stolen animals. The government said the attack took place in Madayouna, a village in the eastern Ouaddai region bordering Sudan's troubled Darfur region. "The mopping up operation is continuing to clear the area and restore tranquillity for its inhabitants," it added.
Chad's government said it had expressed concern about the incident to the Sudanese embassy and called on Sudan's government to take security measures at the border.
Relations between the two neighbours have been strained by a 2-1/2 years conflict between rebel groups and Sudanese government forces in Darfur, which has sent hundreds of thousands of refugees pouring into poor, arid eastern Chad.
From IRIN...
A group of unidentified armed men in military uniform crossed into Chad from Sudan early on Monday, killing 36 herders and stealing livestock, the Chadian government said.
In a statement on Tuesday, the government said the attack took place in the village of Madayouna in the Ouaddai region of eastern Chad.
“The riposte by the armed forces stationed in the region was rapid,” the statement said.
Seven of the assailants were killed and eight detained, one of whom later died in detention, it added. Two Chadian soldiers were killed and five injured.
Eastern Chad has been gripped with tension since the Darfur conflict in western Sudan broke two years ago. Hostilities have repeatedly spilled across the border into the region where some 200,000 Sudanese refugees are living in camps.
An aid worker in Adre, a border town near the site of Monday’s attack, told IRIN that French troops in eastern Chad have recently stepped up patrols in the area after increased activity by armed groups on the Sudanese side.
Chad President Idriss Deby, who initially took office in a coup in 1990 with the backing of Khartoum, has long had to perform a delicate balancing act in eastern Chad, the site of sporadic rebel movements over the last 15 years.
Last April, Chad accused Sudan of backing a 3,000-strong rebel force operating on the border.
Tuesday’s government statement said the authorities had contacted the Sudanese embassy in Chad “to make known its worry about this grave situation and to invite the Sudanese government to take the necessary measures at its borders from where these insurgents came.”
A delegation of government ministers and military leaders left N’djamena for the border area on Tuesday afternoon.
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