Chad: the controversy over the appointment of high-ranking officers does not end
Chadian soldiers stationed along a road in Ndjamena, April 23, 2021 (illustrative image).
AFP - CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
In Chad, a week after the appointment of senior officers, the controversy continues.
The decree, dated May 21 by the Transitional Military Council, which appointed senior military officers within the DGSSIE, the presidential guard, stirred up disputes.
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With our correspondent in Ndjamena,
Aurélie Bazzara-Kibangula
According to the protesters, these appointments do not respond to any concern for national balance and awaken communitarian discourse.
This does not encourage, according to them, appeasement before the opening of an inclusive national dialogue, a framework for reflection with a view to the installation of new institutions of the Republic.
Blow to hope for change
The latest appointments in the presidential guard are a blow to those who hoped for change during this transition, according to the NGO African Humanitarian Action.
Of the 37 senior officers appointed to positions of responsibility, a large majority come from the same community, that of Idriss Déby Itno.
For the head of governance within the NGO AHA,
“
continuity from start without beginning.
It is the same system that continues.
It was a clan, regionalist nomination that helped secure power.
It does not allow for national reconciliation.
How many ethnic groups are there in Chad who are in the army
?
They must be represented.
Chad belongs to everyone ”.
Appeasement
On the authorities' side, the spokesman for the transitional government Abderaman Koulamallah, plays the card of appeasement: “
They are all Chadians who have been appointed and who have been deemed valid for these positions.
If military executives, political executives feel aggrieved, the government will be able to readjust this without being able to sink into the madness of ethnic and tribal struggles which has caused great harm to our country ”.
The nominations will have to be put on the table of the inclusive national dialogue, according to a government source.
Without this, she said, it would be difficult to achieve peaceful cohabitation, one of the objectives of the transition.
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To read also: Chad: President Mahamat Idriss Déby received the political class and civil society
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