Facts: Chad
Chad is one of the world’s poorest countries.
The country is three times the size of Sweden, it has no coast and is surrounded by mountains in all directions, except in the west.
The roughly 16 million inhabitants belong to around 200 different ethnic groups, of which the Arabs are the largest. Chad is also home to over half a million refugees from conflict-affected neighboring countries.
The regime, the current one and the one under former president Idriss Déby Itno, has kept both the opposition and free media in check. In addition to the lack of democracy, Chad is plagued by deep poverty, ethnic conflicts and attacks by the Islamist group Boko Haram and other terrorist groups.
Source: Landguiden/UI
The delayed and debated national talks on peace in Chad are finally coming to an end. For three weeks, the military government will discuss the country’s future with the opposition and roughly 40 rebel groups.
At the top of the agenda: How to achieve lasting peace.
“This is a defining moment in our country’s history,” said the leader of the military government, Mahamat Idriss Déby, when he arrived at the opening of the meeting on Saturday.
Over 1,400 delegates are expected to participate in the marathon talks in the capital N’Djamena, where it is also hoped to reach a proposal for a new constitution.
Déby says the talks must lead to free and democratic elections, and that they must be held within 18 months of the junta taking power – the time frame France and the African Union have urged the military leadership to meet.
This would mean that elections must be held no later than November this year.
Important groups are missing
The talks were supposed to have started already in February, but have been delayed after the almost 50 rebel groups in the country refused to participate and only two weeks ago the news finally came that 42 out of 47 rebel groups have gone to meet the military government.
But those that are missing can be an obstacle to any success.
Both the leading anti-regime rebel group FACT and a larger coalition, oppositionist Wakit Tamma, continue to refuse to participate.
FACT does not want to sign any peace agreement because it believes that the talks are set up to benefit the military and Wakit Tamma accuses the regime of violating human rights.
They have also protested that Mahamat Idriss Déby has hinted that he wants to become president, which he declared he would not be when he came to power.
Succeeded his father
Déby succeeded his father Idriss Déby Itno, who died in April 2021 after over 30 years as president. After his death, a military junta took over, appointing Déby the younger as head of government.
The country now hopes that Mahamat Idriss Déby’s national conversation will go beyond the democratization conference his father held in 1993, when a constitution was adopted and a transitional government was appointed, but the violence continued.
And there is optimism that the new talks will lead to changes.
— We agreed to these talks in order to rebuild Chad, says Timan Erdimi, rebel leader who has lived in exile for 17 years.
— I hope everything goes as we want and we get peace and reconciliation.