10th April, 2021
Agency Report
Scores of people, including opposition politicians have been arrested in Chad, ahead of Sunday’s presidential election.
The interior ministry claimed it has uncovered a plot to assassinate prominent political figures and bomb polling stations and the electoral commission headquarters.
Politicians were among those arrested for planning the killings of opposition and civil society leaders in an attempt to frame the government, the ministry said in a statement late on Thursday.
Rights groups and opposition politicians say authorities have been cracking down on dissent ahead of Sunday’s vote when Chad’s President Idriss Deby is poised to extend his three-decade rule.
In a statement on Friday, the government rejected these allegations, calling them an attempt to undermine the credibility of the electoral process.
Opposition leaders have called for a boycott in protest against Deby’s leadership. The president’s announcement to seek a sixth term in February sparked violent demonstrations across the Central African country.
The interior ministry said those involved in the election plot were arrested while driving cars with fake licence plates loaded with “weapons of war”.
The situation was under control, it said.
Among those in custody is the leader of Chad’s opposition Socialist Party Dinamou Daram, his brother told Reuters.
“Our country has become a jungle, and repressions on opponents are increasing a few days ahead of the elections,” Daram’s brother Finamou Daram said.
It was not immediately clear exactly how many other people had been arrested or if they all shared the same political affiliations.
U.S.-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday that Chad’s security forces had banned protests, assaulted demonstrators, and arrested scores of people ahead of the vote.