In Chad, the peace mission dispatched by the authorities to the town of Moundou in the south of the country continued its awareness-raising work on Saturday, October 29. The Ministers of Agriculture Medard Laoukein and Petroleum, who are leading this mission, met there with local elected officials, teachers and religious communities. All take advantage of the presence of the government delegation to come and present their daily concerns.
With our special correspondent in Moundou, Yves-Laurent Goma
Djim is one of the 7,000 motorcycle taxis in Moundou. On his way to get to the meeting with the government delegation, the black belting of burnt tires on October 20 further testifies to the seriousness of the violence in this city of 192,000 inhabitants. ” There is injustice which is there and then there is the precarious life which dominates he says.
Not far from the governorate, the sand and gravel quarry which constitutes one of the economic sources for the young people of the commune. With their bare hands and without a mask, they extract sand and pebbles from the depths of the Logone River, which are used in the construction of houses. Some admit to having participated to the demonstrations of October 20 :
” We are all by the river, we only make bricks and at the moment there is no yield », Explains a worker. ” This makes us angry, since there are many Chadians who have diplomas who are unemployed. And those who have nothing work in the civil service now “, continues another. ” We’re here suffering, I can’t eat, although I have children and two wives concludes a third.
Coton Tchad and the local Brewery, the two main job-providing companies in Moundou, are struggling. This further accentuates youth unemployment, one of the major concerns of the province.
If the authorities speak of twenty dead and less than a hundred wounded in the second city of the country, Moundou, during the demonstrations, the president of the provincial committee of the Chadian Red Cross in Moundou, Dr Alphée Mbaiornom Moguelde delivers a another balance sheet. This was established by his organization which had deployed 80 rescuers on October 20.
Dr. Alphée Mbaiornom Moguelde, president of the provincial committee of the Chadian Red Cross in Moundou, gives his assessment of the repression