The government accuses the ‘Parti Socialiste Sans Frontieres’ (PSF) leader Yaya Dillo and his elements of being behind the attack.
It all started with an armed attack on Abakar Torabi, Deputy National Finance Secretary of the ‘Parti Socialiste Sans Frontieres’ (PSF). On the evening of 27 February, his president Yaya Dillo sounded the alarm. “The intelligence services have just (sic) shot dead Abakar Torabi,” he wrote on his Facebook account.
Several media outlets reported that the attack took place outside a barbecue in the Sabangali district in the 3rd District of Ndjamena, the political capital of Chad. The same media reported that the PSF executive was killed and her body taken away by her assailants.
Government spokesman Abderamane Koulamallah denied this. In a press release issued in the early hours of 28 February, the government referred instead to the arrest of this member of the PSF executive committee. According to the government, he had “fomented an assassination attempt on the President of the Supreme Court, Samir Adam Annour.”
However, the statement continued, the arrest took a dramatic turn with a deliberate attack on the headquarters of the National State Security Agency (ANSE), the intelligence and counter-espionage service based in
the 2nd arrondissement of Ndjamena.
“The attack resulted in several deaths,” reports the government spokesman, promising to provide details at a later date. However, he said, some of the perpetrators of the attack had been arrested, while others were being sought. Meanwhile, the leader of the PSF issued another warning: “soldiers are surrounding us at our headquarters in
Klemat.”
The exchange of fire caused panic among the people in the town centre. The intervention of the defence and security forces enabled the situation to be brought under control. This morning, the city centre is on maximum alert.
According to the government spokesman, “anyone seeking to disrupt the democratic process underway in the country will be prosecuted and brought to justice.”
In early February, tensions within the PSF escalated when former president Dinamou Daram proclaimed himself the party’s president. For the camp of Yaya Dillo, the current president, this was a manoeuvre by the ruling regime led by Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno. In a statement to the press, Yaya Dillo accused the Minister of Territorial
Administration and the Presidents of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Council of seeking to destabilise his party in order to prevent it from standing in the presidential election on 6 May 2024.
On Monday 19 February, public opinion was alerted to an assassination attempt on the President of the Supreme Court by unknown assailants.
CA/ac/fss/abj/APA