At least five people were arrested in Chad after violent demonstrations on Saturday against France, accused of supporting the ruling military junta, the opposition and a police official told AFP on Monday (May 16th).
Read alsoChad: Paris committed to a dialogue “as soon as possible”
General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, son of President Idriss Déby Itno killed more than a year ago at the front against the rebels, immediately took over the reins of the country at the head of a group of 15 generals, immediately dubbed by the international community, led by Paris, when other putschist officers suffered its wrath and sanctions elsewhere in Africa.
Seven gas stations of the French oil group Total were vandalized and 12 police officers were injured on Saturday in N'Djamena, according to a police official who requested anonymity and confirmed to AFP the arrest of "
five officials of the demonstration, kept in the premises of the General Directorate of General Intelligence
".
“
Five people were arrested on Saturday by the police and they are not involved in the acts of vandalism.
They are wrongly arrested
, ”said Max Loalngar, spokesman for the opposition platform Wakit Tamma, which initiated the call to demonstrate.
“
The police had emptied the place of the (main) demonstration, the sporadic demonstrations which took place after, we are not accountable for it
”, he pleaded.
"France out!"
Monday, a demonstration of hundreds of high school students from the capital who marched to the cries of “
France outside!
was quickly dispersed by tear gas canisters, noted an AFP journalist.
No one was arrested or injured, a police official told AFP.
Several opposition parties such as the Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF) of Yaya Dillo Djerou and the political movement One Nation For All (UNPT) have called for the release of those arrested.
"
What happened yesterday is extremely serious (...), people will answer for their actions
", retorted Sunday evening on national television the Minister of Communication Abderamane Koullamallah.
Read alsoChad: Mahamat Déby's junta is working to consolidate its power
The junta had dissolved Parliament, dismissed the government and repealed the Constitution on the announcement, on April 20, 2021, of the death of Idriss Déby, who had reigned with an iron fist for 30 years over a country the scene of multiple rebellions.
But she had immediately promised "
free and democratic elections
" within 18 months, at the end of a National Reconciliation Dialogue.
Since then, this forum, which should bring together all the political and armed opposition, according to General Déby, the self-proclaimed transitional president, has not been able to start, the armed groups not managing to agree with the junta in a "
pre-dialogue
in Doha and the political opposition having withdrawn from its organization.
