US planes to quit Sudan; Libyans advance in Chad

August 24, 1983

The United States will pull its AWACS radar planes out of the Sudan, where they were sent Aug. 7 to monitor the fighting in neighboring Chad, the State Department announced. The action ends an apparent diplomatic dispute with the French government over whether the planes had been requested.

In N'Djamena, the Chadian capital, the government said Libyan armored columns were making a two-pronged push south from the rebels' northern base of Faya-Largeau. Information Minister Soumalia Mahamat told reporters some 100 Soviet-built M-62 and M-72 tanks had been transported to a new base about 50 miles south of the northern oasis town.