On Thursday, the Chadian government announced the killing of about 50 people during bloody clashes between the police and demonstrators in the capital, N’Djamena and other areas, coinciding with the date on which the army promised upon taking power to transfer power to elected civilians, before finally extending the transitional period for an additional two years.
The protests, in which the youth component predominated, witnessed violence and the burning of commercial and government properties, and the bodies of demonstrators and security men were scattered in a number of areas and neighborhoods of the capital, which created a state of panic.
In an attempt to contain the situation, the government announced a night curfew in a number of cities.
Unemployment and the desire for change
Al-Safi Adam, director of the “Press 235” online newspaper, told Sky News Arabia that the wide participation of young people in the current protests is due to dissatisfaction with the high unemployment rates and the desire to bring about change.
Adam did not rule out that the protests also took place against the backdrop of widening rejection of the French presence in the country.
Adam pointed to the possibility of a connection between the recent protests and those that erupted in May in the city of Ibeche, bordering the eastern border with Sudan, in refusal to establish a French base there.
A number of central, western and eastern African countries are witnessing intense international competition in light of the increasing Russian presence and the change in the map of international and regional alliances.
Unique protests
In the same context, Abu Obeida Awad, a specialist in West and Central Africa, considered that what is happening in the popular movement in Chad differs in its merits and nature from the conflicts that have prevailed in the region during the past four decades.
He explained to “Sky News Arabia” that the most prominent feature of this difference is the entry of the youth component into the political equation.
Awad expected that President Déby would succeed in containing the current wave, given that he is considered one of the same generation as the engine of the protests.
At the end of last September, the Chadian government concluded an agreement with political parties and armed movements that led to the formation of a national unity government headed by Salih Kebzabo, 75, a journalist and historical opponent of the late Idriss Deby.
After two weeks of a national reconciliation dialogue, the transitional period in which Chad entered after Deby’s killing was extended for two years, which angered many opponents, especially the parties and youth groups that did not participate in the dialogue.
Following the killing of Deby, the Chadian army installed his son, General Mohamed Deby, as head of a transitional military council that would rule the country for a period of 28 months, which was supposed to end this October before it was extended last week for another two years.
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