One of the Chadian rebel leaders, Timane Erdimi, head of the Rally of Forces for Change (RFC), has become the chief of a newly formed coalition, the Union of Resistance Forces (UFR), according to Radio Africa No. 1.
Erdimi sees a better opportunity to lead the expanded rebel group in fight against President Idriss Deby. The UFR consists of eight rebel movements.
"My priority is to reassemble all the resistance around precise points, to unite us and to conquer the power of N'Djamena," he was quoted as saying on Saturday.
Erdimi, the cousin of President Deby, has been pressing ahead with a national dialogue and a transition period leading to elections.
His RFC was part of the rebel forces attacking the Chadian capital N'Djamena in February last year, in which hundreds of people were killed.
In August, A Chadian court sentenced Erdimi and 10 other people to death for crimes against the state, including former president Hissene Habre and another rebel leader Mahamat Nouri.
Erdimi had previously signed a Libyan-brokered peace accord with Deby in October 2007, alongside three other rebel groups. The agreement collapsed amid renewed fighting one month later.
Chad declared independence from France in 1960. The land-locked central African country has seen a series of revolts that began with a military coup in April 1975. Deby, a military chief in 1990 toppled military ruler Habre in the year to take over power. He won elections in 1996, and reelected in 2001 and 2006, while his foes dismissed the polls as unfair.
On Jan. 14, the UN Security Council approved the deployment of 5,500 peacekeepers to replace European troops in Chad and Central African Republic, including 4,900 troops and police backed by helicopters in eastern Chad.