English are besieging capital in Dakar — defend yourself! (7)

I believe the answer is:

engarde

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'defend yourself' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.

'english are besieging capital in dakar' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'eng' (abbreviation).
'besieging' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'capital in' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'dakar' is 'd'.
'are' enclosing 'd' is 'arde'.
'eng'+'arde'='ENGARDE'

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(Another definition for engarde that I've seen is " Ready with foil".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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