Chad opposition leaders get one-year suspended terms

N’Djamena, Chad – (AFP): Six opposition leaders arrested after violent anti-French protests in N’Djamena were on Monday handed one-year suspended sentences for disturbing public order.

They were also fined 10 million CFA francs, or about 15,000 euros.

Those charged included Max Loalngar, coordinator for Wakit Tamma, Chad’s main opposition coalition, and Gounoung Vaima Gan-Fare, secretary of the Chadian trade union federation.

The six were charged with disturbing public order and destruction of property. They had begun a hunger protest on May 23.

Trade unions, opposition political parties, armed groups and international NGOs have called for the six to be released immediately and unconditionally.

Chad has been under military rule since President Idriss Deby Itno, who had ruled with an iron fist for three decades, was killed in April 2021 during operations to crush rebels in the north of the country.

He was succeeded by his son Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, a four-star general, now the transitional president.

His junta vowed to hold “free and democratic elections” within 18 months after staging a proposed nationwide “dialogue”. A reconciliation forum should have started last month but has run into major problems.

Armed groups have warned that Monday’s trial further compromises the national dialogue. The political opposition has already withdrawn from the organising process.

France has thousands of troops in the Sahel, including in Chad, under its Barkhane mission. But in February, Paris announced it would withdraw its troops from Mali and deploy them elsewhere after falling out with the junta in Bamako.

On May 16, Deby, reacting to the violence that had unfolded two days earlier, attacked what he called “false and unfounded allegations” that French troops would redeploy to Chad.