Hurmaji Moussa Dumgor, a spokesman for the Chadian government, said yesterday that an armed militia from neighboring Sudan killed almost 50 people in a village in the Wadai region of eastern Chad during an attack by and subsequent clashes with Chadian forces, a spokesman for the Government of Chad said yesterday.

"Armed and uniformed horsemen from Sudan infiltrated Chad territory on Monday between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. ... and began massacring Chadian people and stealing their livestock," he said. "The Chad armed forces responded rapidly." They killed eight of the attackers and captured seven. The horsemen had earlier killed at least 36 villagers in Madayun, army sources said.

Eastern Chad borders on the Darfur region of Sudan, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than a million displaced since rebellion began in February 2003, prompting a fierce response from government forces and allied militias. The most notorious of these allies are the Janjaweed, armed horsemen widely condemned by human rights groups for their atrocities against civilians.