N’Djamena, Chad ? Thousands rallied Saturday in Chad’s capital to support the president following a defeated rebel attack, while the oil minister threatened to shut down the country’s oil pipeline unless the government is compensated for frozen oil revenues.

President Idriss Deby’s government appears desperate to attract international attention to solve Chad’s political, economic and security problems.

Oil Minister Mahmat Hassan Nasser said in an interview Saturday that the pipeline would be shut down unless the international community ensured Chad received its oil royalties by midday Tuesday.

Chad’s oil exports – 160,000 barrels per day – are small by international standards and have a high sulfur content, reducing their value. But Deby appeared to be gambling that any threat to the world oil supply will bring attention to his plight and free up funds to finance his government.

The warning came a day after Deby announced that he was severing relations with neighboring Sudan and threatened to expel 200,000 refugees from the Darfur region if the international community did not do more to stop what he claimed were Sudanese-backed rebels from destabilizing his government before the May 3 presidential election.

In January, the World Bank froze an escrow account with $125 million in oil royalties in London, Nasser said.

Nasser said the funds must be released or the operators of the pipeline must compensate the Chadian government.