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Thirty-five people have been killed in fighting in recent days between semi-nomadic pastoralists and farmers in southeastern Chad, where clashes between the two communities are frequent, a senior official said on Wednesday.
The deaths occurred in Salamat province, where farmers were attacked when they encountered an illegal roadblock, provincial secretary general Mara Maad told AFP.
A farmer was killed and two injured, he said.
The farmer blamed local cattle ranchers and launched an attack on them on Monday, prompting authorities to send troops, who restored order the same day, he said.
The “intercommunal clashes left 35 people dead, including one soldier,” Maad said.
Map of Chad locating the Salamat region. By (AFP) Pastoralists and sedentary farmers have a long and troubled history in southern Chad, where guns abound and violence often erupts after livestock destroy crops.
Thanks to the region’s relatively mild climate for the Sahel, its vegetation is lush, and for centuries it has attracted migratory herders from arid areas, mostly Arabs, for seasonal grazing.
In November, 22 people were killed in clashes between herders and farmers in Kabbie, also in the south, while almost 50 were killed in ethnic conflicts across Chad in December and January.
In a speech on December 31, Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno said he was “distressed” and “appalled” by the deadly clashes in recent months.
Political scientist Evariste Ngarlem Tolde told AFP that such clashes had assumed “worrying proportions” in recent years.
According to him, “the local authorities have a flagrant bias since they keep herds, which does not allow these inter-community conflicts to be settled amicably”.
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