As the army prepares an assault on the Miski region which is one of the main centres of gold mining in the Tibesti desert, the region's gold diggers, who have banded together to form the "Miski self-defence committee", are clearly refusing to lay down their arms.
This confrontation has a fratricidal air. Throughout the region, the gold diggers who scour the beds of the wadis - the little streams formed by erosion - to extract nuggets from them are very often…former soldiers, not to say deserters!
In Focus | Chad, Libya, Sudan
Rebels and military caught up in Tibesti gold fever
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Since the start of the year, the Chadian, Libyan and even Sudanese armies have been carrying out offensives and counter-offensives against ephemeral rebel groups in the Tibesti desert in northern Chad. At stake are the gold seams running across the region which are being fought over by rebels and army officers alike.
