Chad: imposing meeting of support for the junta for a national dialogue

Several thousand Chadians gathered in a stadium in N'Djamena on Saturday in support of the military junta which wants to hasten the pace to open a "national dialogue" with the opposition and the rebellion, nine months after the death of President Idriss Déby .

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The largest stadium in the capital was stormed at the end of the afternoon and the stands were full, noted an AFP journalist. The public responded to the call of the National Movement for Change in Chad (MNCT), party of the former opponent of the late head of state, Mahamat Ahmat Lazina, rallied to the junta which appointed him Minister of 'Environment.

The speakers notably urged the Chadians of the opposition and the rebellion to participate as soon as possible in the inclusive national dialogue which is due to open on February 15.

Marshal Idriss Déby Itno, who had ruled Chad with an iron fist for 30 years, was killed at the front by rebels on April 19, 2021. One of his sons, the young general Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, had taken the next day the power at the head of a military junta by immediately promising an inclusive national dialogue before presidential and legislative elections within 18 months, a period renewable once.

He was supported in the process by the international community, France, European Union and African Union in the lead, his army being one of the pillars of the war against the jihadists in the Sahel alongside Paris.

However, Paris, the EU and the AU have asked that the 18-month deadline not be exceeded for elections which should therefore be held in the fall of 2022.

But since then, the inclusive national dialogue has been long overdue, in particular because the countless armed rebel groups that have regularly carried out attacks against power for decades have been slow to adopt a united position to discuss with the junta, which has invited them all.

A meeting was scheduled before the end of January in Doha between these armed groups and representatives of power but was postponed to an unspecified date.

In front of a giant banner displaying the photo of General Déby, self-proclaimed on April 20, 2021 at 37 years old President of the Republic for the transition period, Mr. Lazina addressed a compact crowd in a festive atmosphere but in the middle of a massive security device.

He praised the work of the Transitional Military Council (CMT), the executive composed entirely of generals led by Mahamat Déby, "which has made it possible to preserve peace and stability".

“Our most ardent wish is that this national dialogue be a success, that it offers an ideal framework for Chadians (…) to bury the hatchet definitively”, launched the minister.