Fighting erupted on Saturday between Chadian national forces and rebels from the Front for Alternation and Concord in Chad. In this context, several opposition parties and civil society organizations signed a call for an end to the fire this weekend. They also ask Idriss Déby to launch an inclusive national dialogue to ease tensions and leave Chadia’s president for a week to decide.
The memory of the year of the Civil War still haunts the signatories of this declaration. “We have experience of war,” said Mahamat Nour Ibedou, secretary general of the Chadian Human Rights Commission. It’s not a gala party they say. People’s lives are at stake. ”
Despite their differences, civil society and some opposition political parties therefore demand an end to the fire. According to Ahmad Alhabo, president of the Freedom and Development Party, this armed conflict will never allow the birth of “a democratic Chad”.
“Every seizure of arms automatically leads to confiscation also through violence and violence. That is why we say that the warlords must declare a ceasefire throughout the territory and sit around a negotiating table. ”
The aim of the signatories is to stimulate an inclusive national dialogue. A statement addressed primarily to President Idriss Déby Itno, to which they leave a week to respond. “If he does not follow our proposal by the 25th, we will organize civic demonstrations to get him to mind,” said Mahamat Nour Ibedou.
Everyone also calls on Chad’s partners to stop supporting one camp against another in order to facilitate, they say, political dialogue.
Fear for the safety of opponents
The President of the Chadian Convention on Human Rights also fears that this security situation will jeopardize some opponents and members of civil society. In 2008, during a rebel offensive against Ndjamena, soldiers from the Chadian Presidential Guard arrested several opponents who had been beaten in captivity. Among them, Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh has never reappeared. Mahamat Nour Ibedou is afraid that “the scenario will repeat itself”.
“We are told that the fighting would approach Njdamena and therefore we feared that the scenario that allowed kidnapping and the assassination of Mr Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh would be repeated with the leaders of the opposition and civil society, here in Ndjamena. The government has already acted in this direction, so it forces us to take certain precautions when it comes to our security. ”
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