On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday there was an attack on the offices of the National State Security Agency, the powerful internal secret service, which caused “several deaths” in N'Djamena, the Chadian government said, the “elements” of the Socialist Party accused Without Borders (PSF) under the leadership of opponent Yaya Dillo.
“The situation is now fully under control,” the Chadian government assured in a press release on Wednesday, adding that “the perpetrators of this act have been arrested or are being sought and will be prosecuted.”
According to the press release, this attack came after the arrest of a PSF member accused by the government of “attempted assassination of the President of the Supreme Court.”
The situation then took “a dramatic turn” with “a deliberate attack by this person’s accomplices, led by elements of the PSF and at their head the president of this movement Yaya Dillo,” against the intelligence services, the government said.
Yaya Dillo, a fierce opponent of interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, whose cousin he is, denounced a “set-up” regarding allegations of an assassination attempt against the Supreme Court president.
The attack comes a day after the announcement of the schedule for Chad's presidential elections, the first round of which will take place on May 6, and in which President Déby and Yaya Dillo have made no secret of their intention to become candidates.
In its statement on Wednesday, the government reiterated that “anyone who attempts to disrupt the ongoing democratic process in the country will be prosecuted and brought to justice.”
Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, 37, was appointed interim president by the army on April 20, 2021, at the head of a junta of 15 generals, following the death of his father, Idriss Déby Itno, who was fatally wounded in the forehead by rebels .
He immediately promised to return power to civilians by organizing elections 18 months later, a deadline that was ultimately pushed back by two years.
Opposition forces fear the perpetuation of a “Deby dynasty” in the Central African country, which the UN says is the second least developed country in the world. Previously, his son Idriss Déby Itno, who came to power in a coup, ruled the country with an iron fist from 1990 until his death in 2021.