Chad opposition leader Yaya Dillo killed in gun clash
The Chadian opposition politician Yaya Dillo has been killed during an exchange of fire with security forces, the state prosecutor, Oumar Mahamat Kedelaye, said.
Heavy gunfire was heard on Wednesday in the capital, N’Djamena, near the headquarters of Dillo’s opposition party, a witness said. Several people had been killed in earlier clashes near Chad’s internal security agency building.
The violence flared amid tensions in the lead-up a presidential election set for May and June that could return the central African state to constitutional rule three years after the military seized power.
The capital was calm on Thursday morning and residents were returning to work, although internet access, which was blocked a day earlier, had still not been restored, the witness said.
On Wednesday, the headquarters of the opposition Socialist Party Without Borders, led by Dillo, was cordoned off by security forces.
Accounts of the incidents given by the government and the party differed.
A government statement said the security agency was attacked by representatives of the party, resulting in several deaths. Detailing a separate incident, the government said a member of the party, Ahmed Torabi, had carried out an assassination attempt against the president of the supreme court, Samir Adam Annour. Torabi was arrested, it said.
The opposition party’s general secretary told Reuters the deaths near the security agency occurred when soldiers opened fire on a group of party members. He said Torabi had been shot dead on Tuesday and his body was deposited at the agency’s headquarters. On Wednesday morning, party members and Torabi’s relatives went to look for his body at the agency and soldiers shot at them, killing several people, the general secretary said.
The supreme court in December approved the vote on a new constitution that critics say could help cement the power of the junta leader, Mahamat Idriss Déby.
His military government is one of several juntas ruling in west and central Africa, where there have been eight coups since 2020, sparking concerns about a backslide from democracy in the region.