A man was killed on Sunday evening by customs officers after refusing to comply. Riot scenes broke out in Bongor, in the southwest of the country, after the incident.
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Dozens of relatives of the victim and many young people from the neighborhoods, enraged, attacked the Bongor customs office, as well as vehicles that were there. Everything was set on fire. They then tried to attack the gendarmerie camp, where the customs officers had taken refuge. Maddened with rage, they mobilized after the death of a trader in the town of Bongor, in the southwest of Chad.
It all started when customs officers wanted to check the man who refused to comply. The customs officers therefore launched a chase through the streets of the city. They knocked the man down a little further, then an altercation took place, during which the merchant, suspected of fraud, was killed by two bullets, the administration acknowledges.
A second victim, a curious person who came to see what was happening, was killed by a stray bullet, regrets the secretary general of the province, Gaspard Ndjingar, while eleven civilians were also injured, according to witnesses.
“ A powder keg ready to explode »
For anthropologist Remadji Hoïnathy, such explosions of violence have multiplied in Chad, because customs officers, like law enforcement and security forces, have “ tendency to use excessive force with impunity “. Result : ” People think they have no other option than to take justice into their own hands. “, he explains.
Injustice, frustrations of all kinds or even lack of future prospects for young people… “ Chadian society is today a powder keg ready to explode », confirms sociologist Felix Mbete. “ People no longer see the state as a protector, but as an oppressor. They therefore attack all its symbols. »
And as always, to calm the situation in such cases, talks on the question of compensation to be paid to the victims’ families were underway until Monday evening in Bongor, according to family and administrative sources.