LIBREVILLE, Gabon: At least 72 Chadian soldiers wounded in clashes in a northwestern gold-mining province have been taken to hospital since fighting broke out two weeks ago, a military source told AFP Wednesday. The central African country’s military has been locked in running battles since October 14 with a local militia in Tibesti, an arid mountain region bordering Libya and Niger boasting vast gold reserves. Those riches have been a source of conflict ever since Chad’s independence in 1960, with illegal gold miners from across Africa, armed groups and the Chadian military all competing for access. “Since the beginning of hostilities... the government forces deplore 72 wounded who have all been transferred to the military hospital in N’Djamena,” the Chadian capital, a military source told AFP Wednesday on condition of anonymity. The fighting began when the Miski Self-Defense Committee, an armed militia which controls the mining town of the same name, killed two officers from the mining brigade and wounded nine others in an attack on October 14. The Miski Self-Defense Committee, which has prevented the state from accessing the area to exploit its mineral resources, accuses the government of going back on a 2025 peace deal by introducing levies on gold prospectors and carrying out mining in the region. “The situation in Miski has been very tense since fighting resumed,” Ahmet Molikini, a spokesperson for the militia, told AFP. “The army is in difficulty and has already suffered heavy human and material losses,” he claimed, insisting that “Miski remains under the control of the Self-Defense Committee.” The Chadian government has yet to offer any official statement on the matter and did not respond to AFP’s request for comment. The 2025 deal offered a general amnesty for both Chadian soldiers and members of the Self-Defense Committee involved in a previous round of clashes in 2019 and 2020. The agreement also led to the cancelation of all mining permits and ordered the suspension of all mining in the Miski area while land surveys were being completed. A previous deal signed in 2019 was never implemented.