{"id":25221,"date":"2022-08-12T08:55:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T08:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ndarason.com\/?p=25221"},"modified":"2022-08-12T08:55:00","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T08:55:00","slug":"most-powerful-insurgent-group-in-chad-refuses-to-sign-peace-agreement-unless-its-prisoners-are-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/most-powerful-insurgent-group-in-chad-refuses-to-sign-peace-agreement-unless-its-prisoners-are-released\/","title":{"rendered":"Most powerful insurgent group in Chad refuses to sign peace agreement unless its prisoners are released"},"content":{"rendered":"

Civil society organisations, political representatives and more than 30 rebel and opposition factions signed a peace agreement with the country\u2019s military transitional authorities on Monday, August 8 \u2013 but without the most powerful insurgent group, the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), which refused to take part.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Reuters reported that delegates at the meeting in Doha, Qatar, broke into applause after the other rebel and opposition groups agreed to cease fire and participate in a national dialogue that Chad\u2019s leader said could pave the way to elections and return the country to democratic rule.<\/p>\n

Under the accord, the Transitional Military Council and hundreds of opposition representatives will launch a national peace dialogue in the capital, N\u2019Djamena, on August 20.<\/p>\n

Signatories committed to a ceasefire during the talks and the military government guaranteed the safety of rebel leaders who attended.<\/p>\n

However, the rejection by FACT and at least eight other rebel factions cast a pall over celebrations of the agreement, which had been hammered out after about five months of talks in Qatar\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

Since the death of the former president, Idriss D\u00e9by, in April last year, authorities had struggled to restore peace in Chad.<\/p>\n

D\u00e9by died on the frontline fighting FACT rebels. His 38-year-old son, General Mahamat Idriss\u00a0D\u00e9by Itno<\/a>, took power, promising he would\u00a0continue his father\u2019s 30-year legacy of ruling the country. Shortly before his death, Idriss D\u00e9by had just won another\u00a0election to prolong his stay in power.<\/p>\n

Reuters said Idriss D\u00e9by spent much of his three decades in power fending off rebellions that sought to get him ousted. Rebels, including FACT, accused D\u00e9by and his allies of repressive rule, extrajudicial killings and rigging elections \u2013 accusations he denied.<\/p>\n

The military transitional government headed by Mahamat D\u00e9by promised last year that the army would\u00a0hold democratic elections within 18 months, which would mean in October this year.<\/p>\n

However, there has been no sign of organising elections up to this stage. And his military administration has retained the power to extend its \u201ctransitional\u201d rule by 18 months even though Mahamat D\u00e9by faces pressure from France, the European Union and the African Union to meet the October deadline.<\/p>\n

RNI reporter in Chad Muhammad Sani Mouta said FACT rejected the deal because negotiators had not listened to its demands, which included releasing its prisoners.<\/p>\n

In a statement released before the deal was signed, FACT said that the participants in the national dialogue would not be treated equally and demanded a new committee be set up to organise the talks, as well as the release of rebel prisoners from government prisons.<\/p>\n

It was believed that 400 FACT members were in detention and the government said they would not be released without guarantees that they would not rejoin the fighting.<\/p>\n

Mahamat Zene Cherif, the interim military government\u2019s foreign minister, said he believed the agreement would lead to sustainable peace.<\/p>\n

He told reporters that most of the armed groups had signed the agreement and would take part in the national dialogue, which he said was a forum for all Chadian people.<\/p>\n

Reuters spoke to some residents in Chad\u2019s capital N\u2019Djamena, most of whom were not confident about the upcoming dialogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have witnessed several peace agreements that ended in fratricidal wars between the different signatory parties,\u201d said Marius Golbe. \u201cI will believe in this Doha agreement only when the armed groups lay down their arms and are demobilised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Participants of the meeting expressed concern about the refusal by FACT and other rebel groups to participate, saying the dialogue would not be \u201ccomplete\u201d without them.<\/p>\n

AISHA SD JAMAL<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Civil society organisations, political representatives and more than 30 rebel and opposition factions signed a peace agreement with the country\u2019s military transitional authorities on Monday, August 8 \u2013 but without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":10742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}