N’DJAMENA — At least 42 people were killed in eastern Chad after a clash over a water point escalated into a cycle of reprisal attacks between rival ethnic groups, officials said late Sunday.
The conflict in Wadi Fira province, initially between two families, is said to have spread over a wide area, with villages burned down.
Chadian authorities saida delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Limane Mahamat had been sent to the area and the situation had been brought under control.
Mahamat said during a visit to the village of Igote in Wadi Fira near the border with Sudan 42 people were killed and 10 wounded in the clashes on Saturday. He said those injured were evacuated to the provincial health center.
He said the cycle of reprisals had spread over a fairly large area, prompting an intervention by the army. He said the “swift response” by the military helped contain the clashes and that the situation is now “under control.”
The deputy prime minister announced the launch of a ‘customary mediation’ process in the village and of judicial proceedings to determine criminal responsibility.
Deadly communal clashes are common in the central African nation, with a long-running pattern of disputes between farmers and herders, as well as ethnic tensions. The clashes are often triggered by competition over water and grazing land.
The arrival of refugees fleeing the civil war in neighboring Sudan in recent months has further raised tensions over resources and security.
On Sunday, Mahamat said the government was taking all necessary measures to prevent the conflict in Sudan from destabilizing the border area.
Communal clashes in Chad have led to the death of hundreds of people in recent years.
According to the International Crisis Group think-tank, 1,000 people were killed and 2,000 injured in about 100 clashes between 2021 and 2024.
Rights Group Amnesty International last year said it had documented seven episodes of herder-farmer violence between 2022 and 2024, resulting in 98 deaths.
It said the clashes were driven by climate change and other issues, and that despite the recurring violence, authorities had failed to adequately protect the population.
Amnesty said responses by security forces were often delayed and perpetrators were not being held to account “fuelling a sense of impunity and marginalisation within communities”. — Agencies
Source: Saudi Gazette