Investigations have been launched to identify all those responsible for an attack on the presidential palace in N’Djamena, said Prosecutor Oumar Mahamat Kedellaye on Thursday.
The passing of a second soldier from his injuries has further increased the death toll.
The deaths from the attack are classified as “murder, intentional bodily harm, attempted assault on state institutions, constitutional order, state security, conspiracy against the state, and participation in an insurgent movement,” stated the prosecutor at the N’Djamena High Court.
Convicted offenders could face sentences ranging from 15 years in prison to life imprisonment.
The prosecution aims to find and prosecute “the instigators, perpetrators, co-perpetrators, and accomplices” of the attack, which took place on the evening of January 8.
It was executed by what the prosecutor described as a “group of ill-intentioned individuals.”
According to a detailed account provided by Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah during a televised address, the attack was carried out by 24 individuals in the night from Wednesday to Thursday. The assailants, after pretending their vehicle had broken down in front of the presidency, attacked the guards on duty with machetes and knives. The minister said 19 people died from the bloodbath including 18 of the assailants.
Heavy gunfire was heard around 8:45 PM in central N’Djamena. The government, through Infrastructure Minister Aziz Mahamat Saleh and Foreign Minister Koulamallah, quickly reassured the public on Facebook that the situation has been put under control.
CA/sf/lb/as/APA