The government of Chad has arrested 621 people, including 83 preteens since the violently repressed protests that left over 50 people dead on October 20, the public prosecutor in N’Djamena announced Friday.
This is the first time that the authorities have publicly admitted the figure of more than 600 arrests mentioned by several local and international NGOs after these demonstrations against the extension of two years in power of General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno.
Several local and international NGOs, have been saying for three weeks that hundreds of people were killed in several towns on the day of the demonstration, and then afterward in “extrajudicial executions”.
However, the government has so far only acknowledged “fifty” deaths by bullets and more than 300 injured on October 20 alone, including “ten killed” among the forces of order.
Since the “events” of 20 October, “621 people have been arrested by the security forces and transferred” to the high-security prison of “Koro Toro”, in the middle of the desert.
And “401 people have been referred to a court under the procedure of flagrante delicto, 220 others to an investigating judge” for investigation, the judge added.
83 of them were referred “to juvenile judges”, he said. The flagrant offences “will be judged as soon as possible”, concluded Wade Djibrine, who gave no further details and declined response to questions.