Gunmen enter Chad towns,beat aid staff as fears rise

By Stephanie Hancock

N'DJAMENA, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Armed rebels and unidentified gunmen entered two towns in eastern Chad at the weekend and beat two foreign aid workers after rebel factions abandoned a month-old ceasefire, humanitarian staff said on Sunday.

The unrest underlined deteriorating security in the area where European Union peacekeepers hope to start deploying in the next few weeks to complement a hybrid U.N./African force planned for Sudan's violent Darfur region, over Chad's eastern frontier.

Leaders of Chad's two biggest rebel movements, the Union of Forces for Democracy & Development (UFDD) and the Assembly of Forces for Change (RFC), said late on Friday they would break a ceasefire as of Sunday -- a month to the day since they groups signed a Libyan-brokered peace deal with President Idriss Deby.

Just a few hours later, on Saturday, several UFDD vehicles entered the town of Hadjer Hadid, 70 km east of the eastern city of Abeche, triggering a security alert and prompting French and Chadian helicopters to take off in a vain pursuit.

Aid workers in the area said the rebels exchanged fire with government security forces in Hadjer Hadid, though UFDD leaders said their fighters entered the town only to get water and left shortly afterwards without launching any attack.

"We will attack Deby's forces if they continue to provoke us," UFDD Secretary General Abakar Tollimi told Reuters by satellite phone on Sunday.

French forces based in Abeche stepped up security at the town's airport late on Saturday following the attack, aid workers in the city said.

Humanitarian work was suspended until further notice at two refugee camps near Hadjer Hadid, a U.N. official in Abeche said.

"We are still on alert as the situation is not clear," said the official, who declined to be identified.

Aid workers are helping hundreds of thousands of Sudanese and Chadians in eastern Chad, which has been drawn into a spiral of sporadic violence stemming from the war in Darfur and armed Chadian factions opposed to Deby's 17-year rule.

Armed attackers wearing military fatigues overran an aid workers' compound late on Saturday night in the small town of Kou Kou Angarana, 180 km (110 miles) southwest of Abeche, humanitarian staff said.

The gunmen, whose identity is unclear, used the butt of a rifle to beat two foreign aid workers for the French branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres and Oxfam International and a Chadian security guard was hit in the leg by a bullet, they said.

Most aid workers there pulled back to the nearby town of Goz Beida, and aid sources said humanitarian agencies would decide on Monday whether to evacuate all their staff from the area.

After the Libyan-backed peace deal was signed a month ago, speculation mounted last week that rebels may be preparing fresh attacks when the president cancelled a high-profile official tour to the United States with less than 48 hours notice. (Editing by Alistair Thomson)