Youssouf Tom
Chadian rebels, government forces clash in area where slain leader was shot
Government troops and rebels clashed on Thursday in a region of western Chad where president Idriss Deby Itno was killed earlier this month. The fight in the desert region of Kanem, near Chad’s border with Niger, pits Libya-based rebels against forces loyal to a new military junta led by Deby’s son. Fiercely criticised for authoritarianism and inequality, Deby was seen as a trusty ally by many Western countries including the former colonial power France. He was seen as a stabilising force in the fight against jihadism in the wider Sahel region on the southern fringes of the Sahara desert. “Fighting is continuing in Kanem — we are going to have continue to fight, otherwise they will destabilise us,” junta spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouna told AFP. The Military Transition Council (CMT...
Chad army officers sentenced to prison for drug trafficking
Chadian army officers and intelligence officials were sentenced on Friday to up to 10 years in prison for drug trafficking, the state prosecutor and their lawyer told AFP. In January, a vehicle carrying 246 cartons of the opiate painkiller Tramadol, with an estimated value of 12.3 billion CFA francs (18.8 million euros, $21 million), was seized on its way to neighbouring Libya, a judicial source said. An army general, two colonels and a head of the National Security Agency were among 10 people sentenced in the capital N’Djamena. “Of the 11 defendants, six were sentenced to 10 years in prison and four to five years in prison, and one was released,” prosecutor Youssouf Tom told AFP. Those sentenced were also ordered to pay between $25,000 and $50,000, the prosecutor said. “The judge followed...
