Opposition parties in Chad on Wednesday denounced President Idriss Deby Itno after he hinted that military courts may be re-introduced in a bid to curb ethnic violence.
Deby said Tuesday he was concerned about tit-for-tat violence in the escalating conflict between herders and farmers — tensions that are familiar in other parts of the Sahel.
Head of the National Union for Development and Renewal, Saleh Kebzabo, said “intercommunity conflicts are growing more and more.”
kezabo said Deby’s remarks are “proof that he is unable to run the country without turning to exceptional laws,it’s proof that the current regime is at the end of the road.”
Mahamat Ahmat Alhabo of the Party for Freedoms and Development said Deby, who is 66, had been in power for almost 29 years.
Eastern Chad is in the grip of a cycle of violence between nomadic camel herders many from the Zaghawa ethnic group from which Deby hails and sedentary farmers from the Ouaddian community.
Rows over land swiftly escalate last month more than 31 people were killed.
