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ABECHE, Chad (CNN) -- The government of Chad issued a communique Thursday that said mercenaries from Sudan had crossed into Chad.
Sudanese rebels drive their armoured battle wagon, 17 October 2007, at an unknown location on the Sudan-Chad border in northwest Darfur.
The communique, sent out from the capital N'Djamena, said that Sudan had launched "several heavily armed columns" of "mercenaries"against Chad the day before, The Associated Press reported.
Mercenaries is the term the Chadian government attributes to Chadian rebels backed by the Sudanese government, AP reports.
Chad is still recovering from a failed attempt last month by rebels to overthrow President Idriss Deby's regime.
The fighting forced thousands to flee the capital, most of them going to the Cameroonian city of Kousseri, just across the river from N'Djamena.
President Idiss Deby was in Dakar, Senegal, to sign a peace treaty with his Sudanese counterpart Omar Hassan al-Bashir. But al-Bashir failed to attend their meeting on Wednesday because he reportedly had a headache, news media reported.
The recent tensions between Chad's government and rebels is seen as a proxy war over Darfur.
Sudan's government believes Chad is backing rebels in the volatile Sudanese region of Darfur where more than 200,000 people have died since 2003 and 2.5 million people have been forced into refugee camps.
Chad's government believes Sudan is supporting the rebels that moved on the capital of N'Djamena in Ferbruary.
Chad is no stranger to civil wars and invasions since its 1960 independence from France. Deby seized power in a rebel uprising in 1990, and the latest assault on N'Djamena follows a failed rebellion in 2006.
In May that year, rebels got within a mile of N'Djamena before government forces halted them, reportedly with the help of French troops garrisoned there; Deby, denied such aid. His government later gave a top ministerial post to a leader of the rebels
The recent discovery of oil has only stepped up power struggles in the largely desert country. E-mail to a friend 
Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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