Some 50 people have died during demonstrations against the extension of the transition in Chad.
On Thursday, October 20, demonstrations in Ndjamena against the extension of the transitional government led by General Mahamat Idriss Deby were staged by some sections of the Opposition. But the events turned deadly. Some 50 people died in clashes between protesters and security forces, prompting the president of the transition to react for the first time in an address to the nation on Monday, October 24. In this statement, he said that “these protests that have been brought under control are not just demonstrations, but rather a real insurrection carefully planned to create chaos in the country.”
According to the Chadian head of state, what happened on October 20 was the result of his refusal to give in to blackmail by the Transformers Party and Wakit Tama. Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno says he has received the leader of the Transformers eight times since the transition began. “He had suggested to me for the next elections, a system that would put on a same list a president and a vice-president. He would thus abandon the question of the non-eligibility of the PCMT (President of the Transitional Military Council). I rejected his proposals because all the laws and rules governing future elections should be discussed at the National Dialogue Meeting,” Chad’s transition president said.
According to Deby Jr., “during these meetings, we were asked for a 30 percent share in favor of the Transformers in political and administrative positions, as well as in public and parastatal companies.
Mr. Deby further said that the President of the Transformers “asked to be appointed Prime Minister of the Transition and given a 30-percent share of the tasks in the management of the post-dialogue transition. “If I had acceded to this request, there would be neither protests nor violence,” said the president of the Chadian transition, who accuses the political parties of having recruited “terrorist and paramilitary groups to carry out mass murders. He does not spare “the political-military groups that are not signatories to the Doha agreements” which, according to him, “have maintained direct relations with those responsible for these violent acts.”
The strongman of Ndjamena takes full responsibility for the “precautionary measures,” including “the curfew and the suspension of the political parties involved,” taken by the government following these tragic events and decreed a seven-day national mourning period starting Tuesday, October 25.
After the death of Field Marshal Idriss Deby Itno in April 2021 while leading a Chadian army counteroffensive against the rebels of the ‘Front pour l’Alternance et la Concorde au Tchad’ (FACT), General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno was chosen to lead a Transitional Military Council (TMC) for an 18-year period, which has just been extended by two years, at the initiative of the Inclusive and Sovereign National Dialogue (ISND). The 37-year-old general is also eligible to run in the upcoming elections.
AC/fss/abj/APA