The rebels of the Front pour l'alternance et la concorde au Tchad (FACT) are calling for a pause in the fighting between it and the Chadian army.
The leader of the rebels, who have been leading an offensive against the regime for two weeks, assured Saturday April 24 that they were "available to observe a ceasefire" and said he was in favor of a political solution.
But Mahamat Mahadi Ali, the head of FACT, also claimed that his troops continued to be bombarded by the Chadian army.
The last time on Saturday, early in the morning.
"They are rebels, which is why they are being bombed [...]. We are waging war, that's all," reacted to AFP Azem Bermandoa Agouna, the spokesperson for the Transitional Military Council (CMT ), chaired by Mahamat Idriss Déby, son of the late president who died in combat and Chad's new strongman.
FACT insurgents, a group formed in 2016 by dissident military officers, entered northern Chad on April 11 from their base in Libya and advanced south.
They were 200-300 kilometers north of N'Djamena last week, before being driven back by Chadian forces and declaring a funeral truce.
Monday April 19, the Chadian army had assured to have "destroyed" the column of rebels and killed 300 combatants.
The next day, the army spokesman announced that Idriss Déby, who had led the third least developed country in the world with an iron fist for 30 years, had died from wounds at the front in the north against rebels.
Idriss Déby's funeral
The son of the late Marshal Déby, Mahamat Idriss Déby, four-star general at 37 and until then commander of the Republican Guard, the praetorian guard of the regime, is the new strongman of Chad, surrounded by fourteen of the most loyal generals of his dad.
He has full powers, but has promised new institutions after "free and democratic" elections in a year and a half.
The FACT had "categorically" refused this military transition, and announced its intention to march on the Chadian capital.
>> To read on France24.com: Who are the rebels who allegedly killed Chadian President Idriss Déby?
Friday, a dozen heads of state gathered in the Place de la Nation, in the heart of N'Djamena, to pay a final tribute to Marshal Déby, a key partner of the West in the region in the fight against the jihadists.
Among them, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, who, like his counterparts in the Sahel countries, supported the military junta.
"France will never let anyone, neither today nor tomorrow, question the stability and integrity of Chad," promised Emmanuel Macron in his funeral oration.
"Institutional coup"
But he called on the CMT to promote "stability, inclusion, dialogue, democratic transition".
"We stick to what Emmanuel Macron said, an inclusive dialogue to discuss the future of the people. We believe in their ability to change the situation," assured the head of FACT, Mahamat Mahadi Ali, to AFP.
"We are on the same wavelength as the opposition and civil society," also said the leader of the rebel group.
Since the CMT took power, opposition parties and civil society have called for an "institutional coup" and demanded the establishment of a transition led by civilians through an inclusive dialogue ".
>>> Read also on France24.com: What challenges for Chad after the death of Idriss Déby Itno?
"We refuse the accomplished facts and deny to the military junta the political legitimacy to manage the country, because of seizure of power by force, contrary to national law and to the African and international commitments of Chad [...]. through inclusive dialogue the involvement and participation of all actors whether or not they have taken up arms to conquer power ", declared on Saturday several civil society associations and political parties grouped within the collective" Wakit Tama " .
"In the civil-military transition, the head must be civilian and the military must take care of security issues," Masra, one of the regime's most fierce opponents, told AFP on Saturday, using the term used by Emmanuel Macron.
The Independent Confederation of Chadian Trade Unions (CIST), which brings together the main trade union associations of teachers, also protested on Saturday against "a very serious setback in democracy" with the seizure of power by the military junta, and demanded "a return to constitutional order "with" the holding of an inclusive national forum bringing together all the socio-political layers of the nation ". The Chadian Bar Association "disapproves" for its part of this transition "put in place in total disregard of the texts and regulations in force".
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) expressed on Friday its "deepest concerns about what seems to it more akin to the organization of a succession for the pursuit of the grabbing of power".
With AFP and Reuters
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