The deadly demonstrations in Chad made, Thursday, October 20, a “fifties” deaths across the country, according to Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo, who announced the “suspension of all activity” major opposition groups and a curfew.
“There were around fifty dead, especially in N’Djamena, Moundou and Koumra, and more than three hundred injured”he said, adding that the curfew of “6 p.m. to 6 a.m.” will last until “total restoration of order” in N’Djamena, Moundou, Doba and Koumra and warned that the government “will bring order to the entire territory and will no longer tolerate any drift wherever they come from”.
Public buildings “attacked” by demonstrators
The United Nations has deplored the violence and called for an investigation into these deaths. “We deplore the use of lethal force against protesters in Chad. The transitional authorities must guarantee security and the protection of human rights, including freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Reported violations should be investigated”said in a tweet the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations.
Earlier in the day, government spokesman Aziz Mahamat Saleh said that in N’Djamena, the country’s capital, “The demonstrators attacked public buildings, the governorate, the headquarters of the Prime Minister’s party, that of the President of the National Assembly”describing this demonstration, banned on Wednesday by the authorities, as« insurrection ».
France condemns the violence
France, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has ” sentenced “ them “violence, including the use of lethal weapons against protesters”underlined the Quai d’Orsay, affirming that Paris does not play “no role in these events”. The precision of the Quai d’Orsay on its lack of role in the events of N’Djamena also refers to the anti-French feeling which is developing in the region, fueled in particular by Russian interests.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, “strongly condemned” the repression of the demonstrations, calling “the parties to respect for human life and property” and to “privileging peaceful ways to overcome the crisis”he reacted on Twitter.
Pointed political oppositions
These clashes took place after the extension for two years of the « transition » which was to end this Thursday, October 20. At the end of September, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno was finally kept on as head of state until free and democratic elections, supposed to be held at the end of a second transition period and in which Mahamat Idriss Déby will be able to stand.
This maintenance, at the end of an inclusive and sovereign National Dialogue (DNIS) boycotted by a large part of the opposition, has completed the targeting of the political and armed opposition and embarrasses an international community which had nevertheless dubbed Mahamat Idriss Déby he 18 months ago.
On April 20, 2021, when the death of Marshal Déby was announced, killed by rebels on his way to the front, the army proclaimed his son Mahamat Déby President of the Republic at the head of a junta of 15 generals, for an 18-month transition period leading up to elections.
historical opponent
Thursday, in the 6th arrondissement of the capital, stronghold of the opposition where the home of Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo is also located, the streets were deserted. The headquarters of Saleh Kebzabo’s party, the National Union for Development and Renewal (UNDR), was targeted by protesters and “partly burnt down”told AFP the vice-president of the party, Célestin Topona.
A historic opponent of Idriss Déby Itno, who ruled the country with an iron fist for 30 years, Saleh Kebzabo joined the government appointed by the military junta led by the son of the former head of the army 18 months ago. State. He was appointed head of government on October 12.