Delo is one of the most feared opponents of General Deby (French)

Yahya Dillo Djiro's party, the most prominent opposition party in Chad, accused the army of "executing its leader at close range" last Wednesday, to exclude him from running in the presidential elections scheduled two months later, against his cousin, head of the ruling military junta, General Mohamed Idriss Déby Itno.

The Secretary-General of the Socialist Party Without Borders, Robert Gump, told Agence France-Presse, "It is an execution. They shot him at close range to execute him, because he had become a nuisance."

Since last Thursday, Dilo's relatives have been circulating a photo on their social media pages, the authenticity of which has not yet been verified, showing the body of a person resembling the late opposition figure with visible bullet marks in the head.

The party and other opponents accuse the authorities of "assassinating" Yahya Dello Djiro (49 years old) at the party's headquarters to exclude him from the presidential elections scheduled for next May 6.

A spokesman for the "Socialist Party Without Borders" pointed the finger at the Presidential Guard, the elite unit in the army responsible for the security of the head of state, of leading the attack on the party's headquarters in the center of the capital, N'Djamena.

The French agency said that trucks full of members of the Presidential Guard wearing their distinctive “red hats” were heading at high speed towards the party headquarters, before the sound of heavy automatic weapons fire and explosions were heard from the besieged building.

But Communications Minister Abdul Rahman Kalam Allah told the agency, "We did not execute anyone."

He added, "He refused to surrender, and there was an exchange of bullets, and there was no execution" in this attack, which, according to him, resulted in the killing of 4 soldiers and 3 party members, accusing Dilo of having "himself opened fire on the security forces."

Quiet in the capital

Meanwhile, calm returned last Friday in N'Djamena, two days after the deadly attack, and most of the armored vehicles and soldiers who were deployed last Wednesday disappeared.

The Frenchwoman reported that she saw a large bulldozer demolishing the headquarters of the Socialist Party, while security forces set up a cordon around the building.

According to the government, Dilo was wanted on charges of inciting an alleged “assassination attempt” on the President of the Supreme Court 10 days ago, and led an attack on the headquarters of the influential intelligence service last Tuesday.

The opposition figure strongly denied this in a voice message he sent to the agency hours before his killing, and accused the ruling military council of plotting charges against him with the aim of excluding him from the presidential elections.

Dilo was one of the opponents most feared by Déby, and this is due, according to observers, to his kinship with him, and they are both from the Zaghawa ethnicity, which constitutes a minority in Chad, but has monopolized the highest positions in the army and state agencies for more than 33 years.

Source: French