Chad has handed down jail terms to 243 rebels who crossed into the country from Libya in February before their incursion was halted by French air strikes, the government said Tuesday.

Out of "267 people who were arrested, 12 were sentenced on Monday to 20 years in prison and 231 others to terms ranging from 10 to 15 years," Justice Minister Djimet Arabi told AFP.

Charges included terrorism and involvement in terrorism.

Twenty-four minors who had been detained were released, Arabi said.

The sentences were pronounced by a "special criminal court," which also handed down life terms in absentia against nearly a dozen rebel leaders living outside Chad, including their chief Timan Erdimi, he said.

They had been charged with terrorism and recruitment of children, he added.

- Desert rebels -

Chad, an impoverished country in the heart of the Sahel, has been chronically unstable since it gained independence from France in 1960.

An armed group opposed to Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno, the Union of Resistance Forces (UFR), is based in the lawless deserts of southern Libya. Erdimi, its leader, is Deby's nephew.

In February, UFR fighters crossed into northeastern Chad in a column of 40 pickups before they were halted by several strikes from French Mirage warplanes based near the Chadian capital N'Djamena.

France is an ally of Deby, who seized power in 1990 with French help. In 2014, it stationed in Chad the headquarters of its Barkhane anti-jihad force in the Sahel.

The French military said at the time of February's incursion that the Chadian air force had carried out strikes to try to repel the rebels before asking the French to intervene.

The insurgents had crossed 400 kilometres (250 miles) of Chadian territory before being halted, France said.

The Chadian army moved in after the strikes, later announcing that it had captured more than 250 people.

Arabi said the special court had convened in Koro Toro, a prison located in the desert in the north of the country.

Proceedings began on August 20, the minister said.

"The rebels were sentenced yesterday after a fair trial," he said.

The sentence "shows that Chad is a state of law... They benefited from a fair trial, with four court-appointed lawyers who went there to defend them," Arabi said, reached by phone from the Gabonese capital Libreville.

On Tuesday, Chad also sentenced 97 members of the Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram to 10 to 20 years' imprisonment for "terrorism," the justice minister said.

- Criticism -

UFR spokesman Youssouf Hamid, speaking to AFP, denied the government's version of events surrounding the rebel incursion.

Only "about 100" people had been arrested, and the defendants "were never contacted by lawyers," he said.

"There is no law in this country," Hamid said.

He argued that those detained "should be prisoners of France, prisoners of war in the hands of the French."

Opposition parties in Chad and France criticised the French intervention in February, blasting it as interference in Chadian affairs.

But French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told the National Assembly in Paris that Chad had faced a potential "coup" and French intervention was in line with international law.

He drew a parallel with France's intervention in Mali in 2013, when it blocked a column of jihadists who had been heading for the capital, Bamako.

The UFR was created in 2009 among men who had tried to stage a coup in Chad the previous year.

They advanced on N'Djamena from the east but were stopped at the gates of the presidential palace thanks to French support.

After this episode, Erdimi was condemned to death in absentia.

Deby also faces a challenge from another Libyan-based dissident group, the Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic (CCMSR).

Created in 2016, it claims to have several thousand fighters in Chad itself. Three of its leaders were arrested in neighbouring Niger in October 2017 and later transferred to Chad.

UN threatens sanctions over C.Africa peace pact violations
Bangui, Central African Republic (AFP) Aug 23, 2019 - The United Nations special envoy for the Central African Republic on Friday threatened sanctions for violations of a peace agreement signed by the government and rebel groups to end a war that has ravaged the country since 2013.

The CAR is experiencing relative calm since the accord was signed in February between the government and 14 military groups -- the eighth deal since the conflict erupted -- but clashes are still regular in the landlocked country.

"Sanctions will be strictly applied to all those who violate the provisions of the agreement," UN envoy Mankeur N'Diaye told several leaders and representatives of armed groups in Bangui in a follow-up meeting on the peace agreement.

"All that has been tolerated will not be tolerated from today," he said.

Despite the agreement, between 10 and 70 violations of the pact, including murders, rapes and kidnappings, are recorded each week by the UN Mission in Central Africa, MINSUCA, which has so far favoured a strategy of dialogue with rebel groups.

Several leaders of the most powerful rebel groups were present at the meeting, including Abdoulaye Hissene of the Popular Front for the Renaissance of the Central African Republic (FPRC), and Mahamat Al-Khatim, of the Patriotic Movement for Central Africa (MPC).

UN representatives, the African Union and the Central African Government also attended.

The UN discussions, which will continue until Saturday, aim to speed up the peace process.

Key issues include a disarmament and demobilisation programme for armed groups that signed the deal and the lifting of illicit checkpoints where merchants and traders are forced to pay tolls.

The CAR has been struggling to recover from the bloodletting that broke out when former president Francois Bozize, a Christian, was overthrown in 2013 by mainly Muslim Seleka rebels.

Since then, fighting has forced nearly a quarter of the country's 4.5 million people to flee their homes.

Burkina holds three-day mourning after deadly army base attack
Abidjan (AFP) Aug 23, 2019 - Burkina Faso announced three days of national mourning from Friday to commemorate 24 soldiers killed this week in an attack on a northern military base, the deadliest such assault on the army as it battles jihadist insurgents.

President Marc Christian Kabore said the mourning period, which runs until midnight Sunday, is to be held in memory of the security forces who "fell following a terrorist attack" on Monday against the military base in Koutougou, in Soum province near the border with Mali.

A security source told AFP this week that the attack, which also wounded seven soldiers, appeared to be "well-prepared and coordinated", with several dozen militants who arrived on motorbikes and pickup trucks and fired heavy weapons including rockets.

The period of mourning will include flags flown at half mast on all public buildings, said the decree, which forbade public "celebrations (and) recreational events".

A former French colony that ranks among one of the poorest countries in the world, Burkina Faso has been struggling with an Islamist revolt since 2015, which began in the north but has since spread to the east.

Five soldiers initially thought to be missing after Monday's attack were found alive, according to the armed forces general staff.

Previously, the heaviest Islamist attack against Burkina's army left 12 soldiers dead at Nassoumbou, also in Soum province, in December 2016.

Most of the attacks have been attributed to the Ansarul Islam group, which emerged near the Mali border in December 2016, and to the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), which has sworn allegiance to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Those groups are believed to have been responsible for around 500 deaths. Burkina's capital Ouagadougou has been attacked three times.

Amnesty demands justice for Cameroon victims at soldiers' murder trial
Yaounde (AFP) Aug 26, 2019 - Amnesty International on Monday called for justice for women and children killed in northern Cameroon as seven soldiers go on trial over the alleged execution caught on video.

"The Cameroonian authorities must leave no stone unturned in their pursuit of justice for two women and two children who were brutally murdered by the military," Amnesty said in a statement.

The seven soldiers are due to appear on Tuesday before a military court in the capital Yaounde on charges of joint participation in murder, breach of regulations and conspiracy, according to Captain Cyrille Serge Atonfack, a spokesman for the defence ministry.

The video that went viral on social networks in early July 2018 was initially dismissed as "fake news" by the Cameroonian authorities.

"But Amnesty International revealed credible evidence that the Cameroon military was responsible, and the authorities later announced that the seven soldiers depicted in the video had been arrested and would be prosecuted," the statement said.

Amnesty said it relied on multiple strands of evidence - including expert analysis of the uniforms and weapons used, and linguistic and other contextual clues in speech that gave away the identities and ranks of the soldiers.

"This horrifying video shone a spotlight on the way civilians in Cameroon's Far North have been ensnared in atrocities amid the fight against Boko Haram," said Samira Daoud, Amnesty's West and Central Africa deputy regional director.

"Security forces who are supposed to be protecting people have instead carried out arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial executions," Daoud said.

Cameroon has deployed troops to its Far North to fight Boko Haram jihadists who have crossed over from Nigeria to wage attacks in the neighbouring country.

Cameroon's armed forces have also been accused of abuses in two western regions where anglophone separatists have launched an armed campaign against the predominantly French-speaking state.

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Ivory Coast's 'Floating Island' points to greener tourism
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