several dead in attack on intelligence agency

An attack targeted the offices of the powerful Chadian intelligence services on the night of Tuesday February 27 to Wednesday February 28, causing “several deaths” in N’Djamena, the government announced. “The situation is now completely under control”, assured this last Wednesday. He is pointing out that “the perpetrators of this act have been arrested or are being sought and will be prosecuted”.

The Chadian government accuses “elements” of the Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF) led by opponent Yaya Dillo. The army is deployed around the PSF headquarters in N’Djamena and all roads leading to the National State Security Agency are blocked, AFP journalists noted this morning.

A presidential election under tension in early May

According to the government, this attack occurred after the arrest of a member of the PSF, accused of “assassination attempt against the President of the Supreme Court”. The situation would then “took a dramatic turn” with “a deliberate attack by the accomplices of this individual carried out by elements of the PSF and at their head the president of this movement Yaya Dillo” against the offices of the National State Security Agency, says the government.

A fierce opponent of transitional president Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, of whom he is a cousin, Yaya Dillo denounced a “staging” regarding the allegations of an assassination attempt against the President of the Supreme Court.

The attack comes the day after the announcement of the schedule for the presidential election in Chad, the first round of which will take place on May 6 and in which President Déby and Yaya Dillo intend to be candidates. At 37, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno was proclaimed by the army on April 20, 2021 president of the transition, at the head of a junta of 15 generals, after the death of his father Idriss Déby Itno, killed by rebels in going to the front, according to the junta.