Chad: a month after "Black Thursday", many gray areas remain
Dead and injured during demonstrations against Mahamat Déby's continued power.
October 2022 © HYACINTHE NDOLENODJI via REUTERS
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
A month after the day that Chadians called "Black Thursday", there are still many gray areas about what happened on October 20, during the bloody repression of demonstrations by opponents of the extension of the transition. , in Ndjamena and other towns in the south of the country, particularly on the results of these events.
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From 50 to 150 people killed, between 150 and 180 people missing, more than 1,300 people arrested or between 600 and 1,100 people "
deported
" to the high security prison of Koro-Toro, according to the sources.
These are figures reported by the UN Committee against Torture.
On the government side, the counter has remained blocked since the first day on the figure of 50 dead, including a dozen police.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) assures that its investigation on the ground has enabled it, to date, to identify 145 victims by name.
“
We have exact lists from Ndjamena, Moundou, Doba, Koumra… from all regions.
So we can't be wrong.
The time will come when we will come to terms with them
”, assures Dobian Assingar, FIDH representative in the region.
Only three to four names on the list correspond to law enforcement officers, says Dobian Assingar, who wonders why a month after this tragedy, the authorities have not yet made the names of the victims public. and people arrested on October 20 and the days that followed.
According to him, it is “
because we will very quickly realize that there are people who have been reported missing when they have been arrested.
That would put them in a bad position
.”
Chad, still in shock
Today, FIDH or even Amnesty International believe that only the international investigation promised by Ndjamena can help shed light on the bloody repression of October 20, but not under any conditions.
"
An international team that is independent and free to go everywhere, to all the places where demonstrations and repression have occurred and which is also somewhat supported by the United Nations
", specifies Myriam Collado, Amnesty International's researcher on Chad. .
►Also read: Chad: the UN examines the repression of the demonstrations of October 20
In the meantime, these organizations are calling on the Chadian government to put an end
to “the repression of opponents which is continuing
” so far with, in particular, “
night arrests
” and other “
intimidation and threats.
»
Joined by RFI, Roland Marchal, researcher at the CNRS and specialist in Africa, explains what the consequences of these events may be.
There is indeed a break insofar as the violence of the repression, with undoubtedly more than a hundred deaths, means that there is no immediate equivalent.
Roland Marchal, CNRS researcher and specialist in Africa
Esdras Ndikumana
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Chad
UN
Mahamat Idriss Deby