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Chad’s ruling military council has said it would not negotiate with rebels who launched an offensive in the north of the poor Sahel country two weeks ago and are accused of killing President Idriss Deby.

 “The time is not for mediation, nor for negotiation with outlaws,” Azem Bermandoa Agouna, spokesman of the military council headed by the late strongman’s son Mahamat Idriss Deby, said on Sunday after the rebels said they were prepared to observe a ceasefire.

“They are rebels, which is why we are bombing them. We are waging war, that’s all,” Agouna said.

The military council claimed that Mahamat Mahadi Ali, the leader of the rebels known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), had fled into Niger and appealed to help from its neighbour to track him down.

“Chad calls for the cooperation and solidarity of Niger … to facilitate the capture and bringing to justice of these war criminals,” Agouna said.

The FACT rebels came over the northern border from Libya on April 11 calling for an end to Deby’s 30-year rule.

They came as close as 200-300km (125-185 miles) from the capital, N’Djamena, before being pushed back by the army.

Deby died after succumbing to wounds sustained while leading troops against the rebel offensive, just after he won an election.

His death shocked the Central African country, which has long been a Western and regional ally against armed groups they call “Islamist militants”.

The air force has since bombarded rebel positions, the military and rebels said. The military said on Saturday it had “annihilated” the rebels.

After Deby’s death, a military council headed by his son, Mahamat Idriss Deby seized power and said it would oversee an 18-month transition to elections.

Opposition politicians called this a coup and the rebels said they would not accept a “monarchy”.

“FACT is ready to observe a ceasefire for a political settlement that respects the independence and sovereignty of Chad and does not endorse a coup d’etat,” FACT spokesman Kingabe Ogouzeimi de Tapol told Reuters news agency.

Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from N’Djamena, said the move “seems to be a response to the call by the transitional military council for dialogue”.

“It seems that the announcement that the rebel group is ready to observe ceasefire is just a step forward, but not a complete announcement of the ceasefire and it remains to be seen how many other armed groups are ready to lay down their weapons and negotiate with the transitional military council,” she said.

The military council is under pressure to hand over power to a civilian transitional government as soon as possible.

The African Union has expressed “grave concern” about the military takeover, while France and regional powers are pushing for a civilian-military solution.

A move towards temporary civilian-military rule could offer Chad a way out of the crisis.

Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum and Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani is acting as mediators on behalf of the African Union. United Nations representatives are also holding talks with both sides.

A consensus is emerging among opposition politicians and civil society to support a transitional civilian president with a military vice president or prime minister, they told Reuters.

The proposal would mirror a transition in Mali, where a coup last August prompted international calls for the military to relinquish power.

A civilian president was appointed with a vice president from the military, although the Malian opposition is still concerned about the military’s hold on power.

“Most of us are in favour of cohabitation between the military, politicians and civil society,” said Mahamat Ahmat Alhabo, president of the opposition PLD party. “The Malian model … is very inspiring.”

Its spokesman, Azem Bermendao Agouna, said it was open to discussions, but added: “The army will solve all the major challenges and will organise free and transparent elections.”

At least 22 patients died on Wednesday in a hospital in western India after a disruption to their oxygen supply caused by a leaking tank, the health minister said, as a nationwide surge in coronavirus cases soaks up supplies of the crucial gas.

The incident in the city of Nashik, one of India’s worst-hit areas, happened after the tank of gas leaked, said Rajesh Tope, the health minister of Maharashtra, the richest state, where the city is located.

“Patients who were on ventilators at the hospital in Nashik have died,” Tope said in televised remarks.

“The leakage was spotted at the tank supplying oxygen to these patients. The interrupted supply could be linked to the deaths of the patients in the hospital.”

The world’s second most populous nation reported 295,041 new infections on Wednesday for the world’s highest daily rise, stretching its hospitals to breaking point, officials said.

Only the United States had a slightly higher one-day rise of 297,430 cases in January, though its tally has since fallen sharply. India’s 2,023 deaths were also its highest in the pandemic.

On Tuesday, hospitals in Delhi, the capital, said they had enough oxygen left for just another eight to 24 hours, while some private institutions had enough for only four or five.

The situation was so severe that some people had tried to loot an oxygen tanker, forcing authorities to beef up security, said the health minister of the neighbouring state of Haryana.

“From now, I’ve ordered police protection for all tankers,” Anil Vij told Reuters partner ANI.

Television showed images of people with empty oxygen cylinders crowding refilling facilities as they scrambled to save stricken relatives in hospital.

“We were completely blocked out of supplies yesterday but by the end of the day we received some and it is helping us today,” said Charu Sachdeva, an official at the state-run Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute & Research Centre in the capital.

In the northern city of Lucknow, one man said a hospital had asked him to arrange oxygen supplies for his uncle or take him away since it had run out.

Delhi, a city of 20 million people, recorded 28,395 new cases and 277 deaths on Tuesday, its highest tally since the pandemic began. Every third person tested for coronavirus proved positive.

About 80 of 142 hospitals in Delhi had no beds left for virus patients, government figures showed.

New Delhi businessman Saurabh Mittal said he called a hospital shown in a government database to have beds free, only to be told they were full up and could not take anyone.

“I told them there is online availability but they said the real-time data showed no beds,” said Mittal, who had been trying to arrange treatment for a virus sufferer.

India faces a coronavirus “storm” overwhelming its health system, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a national address overnight, adding that authorities were working with states and private firms to deliver oxygen with “speed and sensitivity”.

Delhi, like large parts of India, let its guard down when the virus seemed to be under control, allowing big gatherings such as weddings and festivals as daily infections fell to fewer than 1,000 during the winter, health experts said.