WASHINGTON (AP) – The State Department on Saturday ordered non-essential diplomats from the U.S. embassy in Chad to leave the African nation due to possible insurgent attacks on the capital.
In addition to the non-essential staff of the embassy, the department also ordered the families of the American personnel housed there to leave because it appears that the armed groups are moving to the capital N’Djamena.
“Non-governmental armed groups in northern Chad have moved south and appear to be heading towards N’Djamena,” the department said in a travel alert. “Because of their growing proximity to N’Djamena, and the possibility of violence in the city, non-essential U.S. government employees have been ordered to leave Chad by a commercial airline.”
The department has long warned Americans not to travel to Chad because of the unrest and presence of the jihadist group Boko Haram. It was said that any American who wanted to leave now had to do so.
Nearly half a million refugees from neighboring Sudan, Nigeria and the Central African Republic live in the landlocked Chad. Another 330,000 Chadians are internally displaced, mostly in the volatile Lake Chad region where Boko Haram militants are active.