Heavy clashes broke out on the second day of the siege of the Chadian capital by rebels yesterday, with the Chinese embassy helping to evacuate more than 200 Chinese nationals from N'Djamena.
Army helicopters and troops loyal to President Idriss Deby struck back at the rebels besieging the presidential palace.The helicopters bombed the rebels who, armed with pickup trucks mounted with cannon and machine guns, fought tanks and foot soldiers in a bid to dislodge the president from his heavily-defended palace in the west of the city.
Foreign and local residents in the dusty capital said heavy weapon and machine-gun fire erupted before dawn near the palace, not far from two hotels where several hundred foreigners were sheltering. Smoke was also seen rising in the sky.
The rebels battled their way into the capital from the north on Saturday with a column of 300 vehicles.But they appeared unable to take full control of the sprawling city on the banks of the Chari river.
The Chinese embassy has helped move the Chinese nationals to neighboring Cameroon, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said yesterday.Only nine embassy staff and some other Chinese nationals remain in N'Djamena, and the foreign ministry is trying to evacuate them too, Liu said.
China Daily's call to the Chinese embassy yesterday went unanswered. The Chinese newspaper Legal Evening News got through to the embassy earlier, and reported that gunfire could be heard clearly over the phone.
Heavy street fighting is raging in N'Djamena, and the embassy's building windows shook when tanks fired, the Legal Evening News quoted embassy officials as having said.
The Chinese nationals who have been evacuated include 195 employees of companies like PetroChina, CGC Overseas Construction, ZTE and Huawei, and two Taiwan compatriots. They are in Cameroon now, and were escorted by Cameroonian troops to hotels in the north of the country, the Chinese Embassy in Yaounde said.
Cameroon has been very cooperative and the country's senior officials have called the Chinese ambassador over the phone to offer help, a Chinese counselor in Cameroon surnamed Wu said.
The staff of the Chinese Embassy in Cameroon have arranged for food for those evacuated from Chad yesterday afternoon and visited them at the hotels, Wu said. The embassy has booked rooms in three more hotels to accommodate more Chinese nationals who are likely to evacuated be later.
The Chinese consulate in Douala, Cameroon's largest city and top aviation hub, has prepared to book air tickets for the evacuated compatriots to return to the motherland, Wu said.
Questions:
1. How many Chinese nationals had to be evacuated from the African nation of Chad?
2. What is the name of the Chad capital where the rebel fighters were trying to oust the President?
3. List two Chinese companies that have workers in Chad?
Answers:
1.More than 200 Chinese nationals.
2.N'Djamena.
3.PetroChina, CGC Overseas Construction, ZTE and Huawei.
（英语点津 Celene 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Brendan joined The China Daily in 2007 as a language polisher in the Language Tips Department, where he writes a regular column for Chinese English Language learners, reads audio news for listeners and anchors the weekly video news in addition to assisting with on location stories. Elsewhere he writes Op’Ed pieces with a China focus that feature in the Daily’s Website opinion section.
He received his B.A. and Post Grad Dip from Curtin University in 1997 and his Masters in Community Development and Management from Charles Darwin University in 2003. He has taught in Japan, England, Australia and most recently China. His articles have featured in the Bangkok Post, The Taipei Times, The Asia News Network and in-flight magazines.
