In a television address on Monday, Chadian Interim President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno accused outside forces of being behind the widespread violent protests that emerged following his backing out of a pledge to return the country to civilian rule 18 months after the death of his father, President Idriss Déby.
"These were not simple demonstrations that were brought under control but a real, carefully orchestrated insurgency to create chaos in the country," Déby said.
"External actors have provided arms and money to opportunistic Chadians who have not hesitated for a moment to destroy our country to satisfy their personal interests and foreign agendas,” he added. “Even today, Chadian actors have sought the support of foreign powers to pressure and blackmail me so that they can accede to power.”
Deby said there was a "clear desire to trigger a civil war" and that opposition and rebel groups had "recruited and used terrorist and paramilitary groups to carry out gratuitous mass killings."
Anti-government demonstrators set a barricade on fire during clashes in N'Djamena, Chad
© AP Photo
However, a Geneva-based NGO, the World Organization against Torture (OMCT), also levied accusations on Monday, claiming Chadian military forces had tortured and executed demonstrators. They said they had taken up the case at the United Nations, along with three Chadian human rights groups.
At least 50 people were reported as killed in the protests, according to Déby’s prime minister, Saleh Kebzabo. The protests grew on Thursday, the day that civilian rule was due to return to the Central African country. However, weeks earlier, the Transitional Military Council headed by Déby decided to extend the transition by two years, installing Déby as the country’s interim president.
The protests were focused in the capital of N’Djamena and several cities in the country’s oil-rich south, which is also close to the conflict-wracked Central African Republic (CAR). Protesters set fire to government buildings and cars and built barricades in the streets. The military suppressed the demonstrations and announced a curfew in response.
"I will not accept that the nation be divided, the country fragmented and our unity mortgaged. I will use all legal means at my disposal to prevent these projects that are harmful to our country," Déby added.
Several other former French colonies have also begun shrugging off their neo-colonial relationships with Paris or seen protests demanding their governments do so, including the CAR, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso. The Malian government has explicitly accused Paris of funneling support and providing logistical help for Islamist rebel groups it was supposed to be fighting in the Malian Sahara.
France’s Long History of Meddling
Déby did not name the “foreign power” to blame for the protests, but upon their eruption it was immediately suspected that Paris was behind them. The French Foreign Ministry was so bothered by the rumors that it felt compelled to put out a statement on Thursday condemning “the use of lethal weapons against demonstrators," but added that "France is not playing any part in these events, which lie strictly in Chad’s domestic political domain."
The French Empire conquered the Chad area in 1900, using it as a source of raw cotton and manual laborers and putting little effort into developing or uniting the colony’s many ethnic groups. On the contrary, divide-and-conquer was the favored policy, and Paris backed strong groups and strong leaders.
Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, the head of Chad's Military Transition Council, and French President Emmanuel Macron meet at the Elysee Palace in Paris on July 4, 2021
Even after Chad won independence in 1960, Paris continued to meddle, backing one strongman after another so long as they offered stability and could suppress rivals. A similar policy has prevailed elsewhere in Africa, leading Paris to back the Hutu Power government in Rwanda even as it marched toward genocide. In Chad, it meant backing dictator Hissène Habré until the country fell apart and Libya invaded; Paris then switched to backing Idriss Déby, a rebel leader from the country’s north who rose up to replace him in 1990.
The elder Déby developed a close relationship with Paris, implementing a semblance of democratic reforms, including elections, while cooperating with and headquartering France’s counter-terrorism mission that began in 2014, Operation Barkhane. When Déby was killed in battle in early 2021, Paris rushed to back his son, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno.
However, French President Emmanuel Macron quickly backtracked after the international community almost universally condemned Déby’s violation of the Chadian constitution when he assumed power - something Macron’s government had waved away with an excuse about “exceptional security reasons.” Paris began calling Déby’s government a “junta,” or military dictatorship, and condemned the repression of protests.