The battle of Kouno was an inconclusive battle that took place between French troops and the
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
army led by
Rabih az-Zubayr
Rabih az-Zubayr ibn Fadl Allah or Rabih Fadlallah ( ar, رابح فضل الله ,رابح الزبير ابن فضل الله), usually known as Rabah in French (c. 1842 – April 22, 1900), was a Sudanese warlord and slave trader who establish ...
, in the context of French colonial expansion in Africa, and more precisely in
Chad
Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...
.
On August 16, 1899 the leader of the
Gentil Mission Gentil may refer to:
People:
*Jean-Paul Alaux, called Gentil, French landscape painter and lithographer
*Émile Gentil, a French colonial administrator
*Guillaume Le Gentil, a French astronomer
*Jean-François Gentil, a French colonial officer
*Jos ...
, the Captain
Émile Gentil
Émile Gentil (; 4 April 1866 – 30 March 1914) was a French colonial administrator, naval officer, and military leader.
Born at Volmunster in the department of Moselle, he later attended the École Navale, the school that formed French na ...
, was informed of the utter annihilation by the warlord
Rabih az-Zubayr
Rabih az-Zubayr ibn Fadl Allah or Rabih Fadlallah ( ar, رابح فضل الله ,رابح الزبير ابن فضل الله), usually known as Rabah in French (c. 1842 – April 22, 1900), was a Sudanese warlord and slave trader who establish ...
Braun
Braun is a common surname, originating from the German word for the color brown. The name is the 22nd most common family name in Germany. Many German emigrants to the United States also changed their name to ''Brown'' (''see Brown (surname)'') ...
Mission at
Togbao
On October 10, 1898 a French military expedition commanded by the ''Lieutenant de vaisseau'' Henri Bretonnet and the Lt. Solomon Braun left France directed to Chad, at the time dominated by the Muslim warlord Rabih az-Zubayr. With the missions we ...
on July 17.
Gentil knew that the Forreau-Lamy and Voulet missions were marching on southern
Chad
Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...
Niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languagesVoulet-Chanoine Mission; but first he felt he had to free himself of Rabih, and so left on October 23
Fort-Archambault
Semi-active radar homing (SARH) is a common type of missile guidance system, perhaps the most common type for longer-range air-to-air and surface-to-air missile systems. The name refers to the fact that the missile itself is only a passive de ...
, leaving only twenty men under the command of the '' maréchal de logis'' Bauguies. Gentil started navigating the
Chari
Chari may refer to:
Places
* Chari River, in Central Africa
* Chari-Baguirmi (disambiguation), in Chad
* Chari Department, in Chad, one of three departments making up the region of Chari-Baguirmi
* Moyen-Chari (disambiguation), in Chad
* Chari, ...
upriver, counting on three cannons, while the
steamboat
A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...
''Léon-Blot'' and their
barge
Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...
had other two. A column formed by Cointet and Lamothe's men, under the command of the Captain Robillot, took instead the ground route marching close to the riverside.
On October 26 Gentil encamped himself near the hills of Togbao, at only 20 km from Rabih's forces, where he inspected the battlefield of the previous fight and united his forces with those of Robillot. On October 28 Gentil boarded most of his forces, and proceeded to Kouno that was first seen, at 9:00, and where Rabih was waiting Gentil; Rabih knew only of the arrival of the steamboat, while he had no knowledge of the three companies passing near the river.
Gentil immediately ordered the steamboat and the barge to open fire with their cannons; and at the same time, to the great surprise of Rabih's forces, the column proceeding by land did the same with its artillery. All the same they answered using their artillery, the three cannons won at Togbao, which they used with considerable ability. Rabih had also placed on the left a group of riflemen, whose rifle-fire also started to put Robillot's
tirailleur
A tirailleur (), in the Napoleonic era, was a type of light infantry trained to skirmish ahead of the main columns. Later, the term "''tirailleur''" was used by the French Army as a designation for indigenous infantry recruited in the French c ...
s in difficulty, moving Robillot to order a bayonet assault on Rabih's lines. Being the latter provided only of
firearm
A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions).
The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...
s, they escaped disorderly to Kouno.
The assault brought the French to the outskirts of Kouno, to which they set fire. They continued advancing, till they found themselves just before the fortifications of Kouno; here Rabih had assembled all his forces, that started a massive rifle-fire, supported by an artillery piece.
After three hours of battle had passed and it was 12:00, some of Rabih's men started yielding and escaping; and this ampliated when one of Rabih's chief lieutenants, Othman Cheiko, governor of
Kousséri
Kousséri (from ar, قصور ''quṣūr'' meaning "palaces"), founded and known as Mser in the indigenous Mser language is a city in Far North Province, Cameroon. It is the capital of the Logone-et-Chari department. It is a market town, and ...
, was killed. Gentil ordered now to attack the palissade with a bayonet assault, that was repelled after hard fighting by Rabih in person with only a few hundred men still resisting around him.
The rifle-fire continued, but at 16:30 Gentil was forced to admit that he would never take the enemy fort that day. Gentil had suffered heavy casualties: 46 soldiers were dead, while 106 were wounded, almost half of his 344 men. Among the dead stood the ''maréchal de logis'' de Possel, while seriously wounded were the captain Robillot and the lieutenant Kieffer. Also Rabih had suffered important losses, and some of his bannermen had been killed, like Boubakar, Rabih's chief lieutenant.
After having passed the night near the fort, the following morning Gentil, after having verified that, apart from the human losses, the
ammunition
Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...
and the provisions were nearly ended, ordered the retreat to Fort-Archambault, where the French returned without problems.
The battle had proved inconclusive; Kouno had not been taken, and Rabih still remained the key obstacle to the French conquest of Chad. Both sides had suffered heavy losses, and for Gentil there was now little other choice than await the arrival of the Voulet-Chanoine and Fourreau-Lamy missions.