A Bruise for Libya

Chad, the miserably poor former French colony in Central Africa, hardly seems worth fighting over. For years, though, a confused and indecisive civil war has been going on that loosely pits the largely Muslim north against the largely Christian and Animist south. That war long ago became internationalized when Libya moved its forces into northern Chad and France responded by sending advisers, military supplies and air units into the south.

Until recent days the war had appeared to be largely stalemated, with France and Libya both preferring to avoid direct confrontation. Now the course of the war has suddenly changed. Government troops have won a stunning victory, and Libya’s Moammar Kadafi has been humiliated.

U.S. and French sources indicate, in fact, that Libyan units may now be abandoning their last strongholds in the north, presumably opening the way to reoccupation by government forces. This follows last Sunday’s capture by Chadian troops of Ouadi Doum, an air base of vital logistical importance to Libya. Without the base, which has the only runway in Chad capable of handling Libyan supply planes, Kadafi has no means to keep his forces armed and fed.

Chad claims to have killed or captured the bulk of the base’s Libyan defenders. It also says that it seized or destroyed a mountain of largely Soviet-supplied equipment--including bombers, fighters, helicopter gunships, tanks and surface-to-air missiles. French officials credit the Chadian victory to superior tactics and equipment, including European-made anti-tank missiles. U.S. military sources, without denigrating Chad’s achievement, say that low Libyan morale and poor Soviet-devised tactics contributed to the victory.

The political implications of that victory could be far-reaching. Libya’s armed forces, equipped with the best that the Soviets chose to provide, have been bested by the army of what may be the world’s most impoverished country. This loss is not likely to lift Kadafi’s prestige either abroad or at home, where there have been recurring signs of restiveness in the ranks of his military. Kadafi has made no secret of his imperial ambitions in Muslim Africa. Those plans may finally have come to an end at a speck on the map called Ouadi Doum.