N’DJAMENA (Reuters) -Chad’s state election body said on Thursday interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby had won the May 6 presidential election outright with over 61% of the vote. Communications Minister Abderaman Koulamallah said that Yaya Dillo had died on Wednesday “where he had retreated, at the headquarters of his party. He didn’t want to surrender and fired on law enforcement”.
The authorities said 12 others also died in the shootout. He was the leader of the Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF).
Before his death, Mr Dillo was widely predicted to be his cousin’s main opponent in the election. When running against the current president’s father, Idriss Déby, for the presidency in 2021, state forces killed Mr Dillo’s mother, son and three others, the PSF said. The party said the assailants were attempting to arrest Mr Dillo.
[May 1 2024 U.S. military leaving Chad ]
More than half of the US troops stationed at the French military base in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, have now left the country and relocated to Germany. Some US forces will remain in the country working out of the US embassy there, in addition to the Marines who will continue providing embassy security,
[April 25 2024 ]
The impending departure of the U.S. military advisers from Chad was prompted by a letter from the Chadian government dated April 4 2024 The letter blindsided and puzzled U.S. diplomats and military officers. It was sent from Chad’s chief of air staff, Idriss Amine; typed in French, one of Chad’s official languages; and written on Amine’s official letterhead, two U.S. officials said. It was not sent through official diplomatic channels, they said, which would be the typical method of handling such issues.
[March 2 2024 Gen Saley Deby, a close relative of the Chadian junta leader Mahamat Deby arrested ]
Gen Saley Deby, a close relative of the Chadian junta leader Mahamat Deby, was being hunted down to “surrender”.
Later, Saley was arrested and “taken to the presidency”, it reported. Saley had joined the PSF earlier in February, having left the ruling junta. Yaya Dillo Djerou, a leading opponent of Chad’s ruling junta chief, has died in an army assault on his party headquarters ahead of a May election when he was set to be the main rival to his cousin and transitional president Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno. Deby Itno and Dillo were from the same Zaghawa ethnic minority, which for more than three decades has dominated the military and political elites.
[February 12 2024 French forces hunt for kidnapped Polish woman ]
Chadian and French forces were searching for a Polish doctor kidnapped in southern Chad and Polish diplomatic and consular services were in contact with local authorities and her family.
Kidnappings for ransom are frequent in the Tandjile region, where the abduction occurred.
The woman was volunteering at the Saint-Michel Hospital, several hundred kilometers (miles) from the capital in the Central African nation, when attackers pretending to be patients abducted her
[December 28 2023 Redeploying French forces from Niger to Chad? Yes. Done ]
Just 1,000 French troops now remain in Chad, where France currently bases its anti-jihadist operation in the region.
https://www.voanews.com/a/french-departure-from-niger-underscores-fading-influence/7416467.html
[December 22 2023 ]
The last French soldiers boarded a military plane from the French air base in Niamey on Friday afternoon,
[November 9 2023 ]
[October 20 2023 ]
PARIS —
The first French road convoy containing troops withdrawing from Niger following the overthrow of its president has arrived in neighboring Chad, the French military said on Thursday.
The convoy “has arrived without any particular problems” in the Chadian capital N’Djamena after nine days on the road, French general staff spokesman colonel Pierre Gaudilliere told AFP.
The troops will from there depart by air back to France. Gaudilliere said the road journey had taken place in coordination with Nigerien forces.
[October 18 2023 ]
Asked whether the Mistral could be involved in the French troop withdrawal from Niger, its captain did not rule out the possibility.
“Just like all the large amphibious vessels, we may be employed” for this kind of operation, Roussille said.
The French army faces a considerable task of repatriating its equipment from Niger mostly overland through Chad and then Cameroon by the end of the year.
The Mistral can carry up to 60 armoured vehicles, 16 helicopters and up to 900 soldiers.
[October 17 2023 ]
Under the terms of this agreement and at the request of the Chadian authorities, some 1,000 French soldiers are currently stationed at the N’Djamena air base, with two additional outposts at Abéché and Faya-Largeau, according to the French Ministry of the Armed Forces. Their official mission is to train and educate the Chadian army, but French air support and intelligence sharing have repeatedly proved decisive in N’Djamena’s fight against rebel groups scattered across the borders of its vast territory.
[October 14 2023 ]
“Chad has agreed to offer a corridor of its territory for the return of French troops to France,” chief of general staff of the Chadian army Abakar Abdelkerim Daoud said in a statement dated Thursday.
“Chadian forces will escort these convoys from the Nigerien border to N’Djamena for the airport… and to the Cameroonian border for the port of Douala.”
Roughly 1,400 soldiers were based in the capital Niamey and western Niger to battle fighters linked to the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda, bringing with them vast quantities of gear.
A first contingent set off from their forward base in Ouallam for neighbouring Chad on Tuesday, travelling by road in armoured vehicles under Nigerien escort for the journey of over 1,600 km.
From N’Djamena, French troops can leave by air with their most sensitive equipment.
[October 12 2023 ]
“Troops based in Ouallam (west) left their base today. These are operations for the departure of the first land convoy bound for Chad under escort from our Defense and Security Forces”, said the Niamey regime, in a statement read out Tuesday evening on national television.
In addition to this departure by land, “three special flights” were registered at Niamey airport, two for the departure of “97 elements of the special forces” and one “dedicated to logistics”.
[October 7 2023 ]
France had reinforced its presence in Niger after another coup-born military regime in Mali demanded its forces’ departure, adding armoured vehicles and helicopters to the drones and fighter jets already deployed.
Its troops will now have to withdraw either via Benin to the south – at odds with the junta in Niamey – or Chad to the east, site of France’s headquarters for the Sahel theatre.
This week, the Central African Republic (CAR) army and Wagner Group mercenaries carried out a military exercise in Ouham-Fafa Prefecture near the border with Chad.
In response to growing security concerns along its shared border, Chad has increased its troop presence and patrols, collaborating with French forces in the region, amid allegations that CAR is planning to use anti-government armed groups and mercenaries.
Increased security activities along the border by CAR authorities are to pressure Chad not to work with armed groups.
[October 1 2023 ]
There are about 6,700 French soldiers reportedly still deployed on the African continent, including in Chad, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Gabon. Redeploying French forces from Niger to Chad or even Ivory Coast would amount to kicking the can down the road, Losing the country’s self-perception as a great world power, “It means we will no longer have a fighting army,” said a former French official.
[December 23 2022 Kaka inaugurates an airport ]
The transitional president, Mahamat Idriss Déby inaugurates this Wednesday, December 28, 2022, the airport of Amdjarass, capital of the province of Ennedi Est. An airport that will bear the name of a son of said land, Marshal Idriss Déby Itno, who died in April 2021 in clashes between the army and the rebels of the Front for Alternation and Concord in Chad
[July 23 2022 rebels want talks [
NDJAMENA (Reuters) – Chad rebels said on Friday they would renew their participation in peace-building talks with the interim authorities, after breaking off negotiations last week.
In a statement, the rebel groups said they would resume talks, without giving further details. They had earlier accused the interim authorities of creating a “bad atmosphere” at negotiations in Qatar.
Deby declared himself head of a Transitional Military Council in April 2021 after his father, Chad’s longtime ruler Idriss Deby, was killed while visiting troops fighting the rebel insurgency in the north.
[May 1 2021 street protests continue
Crescent Shift 