Chad’s Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo said about 50 persons have been killed in the country, including “about 10” members of the security forces, as police and protesters clashed on Thursday.
Violence broke out after protesters blocked roads and torched the prime minister’s party headquarters in the capital N’Djamena. Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets to demand a faster transition to democratic rule after President Mahamat Idriss Deby seized power last year.
A national unity government was formed on Friday to lead Chad for the next two years until elections. But critics are demanding a swifter return to democracy.
Among those killed was former Reuters reporter Orédjé Narcisse, who worked for CEFOD radio and was struck by a bullet. In February, Chadian journalist Evariste Djailoramdji was killed while covering community violence in the southern village of Sandana.
Police shot tear gas and rubber bullets to break up gatherings throughout the city. The government said security forces acted only in self-defence.
“What happened today is an armed popular uprising to seize power by force and those responsible for this violence will face justice,” said Kebzabo.
“I firmly condemn the repression of demonstrations that led to deaths in Chad,” African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat, who is a former prime minister of Chad, wrote on Twitter.
The vast military-run Central African nation has been in crisis since the death of President Idriss Deby in April 2021, who ruled for three decades. Deby was killed while visiting troops fighting rebels.
There has been resistance to a transitional military council headed by Deby’s son, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who took power after the president’s death and pushed back elections to October 2024.
Civil liberties groups and other pressure groups called for protests on Thursday, which would have marked the end of an initially agreed 18-month transition period. The government banned them citing security reasons.
But demonstrators showed up early in the morning, using burning tyres and debris to block roads in the capital.
