Leaders of Chad's Main Opposition Groups Forced Into Hiding For Fear For Their Safety

Leaders of Chad's main opposition groups said on Wednesday  they were forced into hiding for fear for their safety after deadly crackdowns on anti-junta demonstrations. Succes Masra, leader of the Transformers party, told AFP he was in "another country" because he was wanted by the "presidential guard". 

Wakit Tamma's Max Loalngar  said he was "hiding somewhere in the country" to avoid arrest. Both opposition figures have accused the junta of "extrajudicial executions" and mass arrests as it cracked down on protests over late elections. Officially, around 50 people were killed when security forces opened fire on protesters in the capital N'Djamena and several other cities last month.

But opposition groups say the real number was much higher, with unarmed civilians massacred, at least 300 people injured and hundreds more arrested. Masra and Loalngar said their groups had asked the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate alleged "crimes against humanity" and excessive use of force by the authorities to mark the date when the ruling army originally promised to take power to deliver, a deadline that has now been extended by two years by General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno.

The 38-year-old took power from his father, Idriss Deby Itno, who ruled for 30 years before being killed in an anti-rebel operation  in April 2021. The junta called the protests an "insurgency" backed by foreign powers. 

The government then made hundreds of arrests, halted all partisan activities and imposed a curfew. According to the authorities, among the victims were a dozen members of the security forces. Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo told AFP on Tuesday that the country has accepted the principle of holding an international inquiry into the deaths at the protests "as soon as possible".

The following day, the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, a former Chadian prime minister, stressed "the urgency of a serious and credible investigation" to bring those responsible to justice. "The hunt continues. 

According to the Chadian Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, a local civil society group,  600 people have been arrested since October 20,  most of them "relegated" to labor camps and prisons far from the capital. The World Organization Against Torture says  to 2,000 people have been put behind bars. Opposition leaders Masra and Loalngar said the authorities had been hounding their supporters in recent weeks.

"On October 21, soldiers from the Presidential Guard searched for me in our barracks and arrested 27 members of my team without finding me," Masra said. "There are only four alive who are  being interrogated." others are dead, some of those who were with them  told me, although we don't have the bodies," he confirmed. 

The persecution continues across the country. Loalngar told a similar story:  house after house, people are being arrested for something,” he said.

"Like all our activists, I was in hiding. Several government officials contacted by AFP refused to say how many people had been arrested since October 20.