A state of emergency declared in Chad will do little to calm nerves among residents in the capital, Ndjamena, many of whom complain soldiers are already taking advantage of a security crackdown to loot homes.
President Idriss Déby Itno declared a state of emergency across the former French colony late on Thursday for 15 days to tighten security after a rebel attack on Ndjamena two weeks ago.
The move gives the authorities powers to censor media, conduct searches and tightly regulate movement in the country. It also extends a midnight-to-dawn curfew across the nation.
The capital saw two days of street fighting during the February 2 to 3 rebel assault in which more than 160 people were killed. Life is slowly returning to normal.
But the streets are quiet. Residents are wary of talking to strangers and many sit in doorways of their homes, nervously watching soldiers drive around on motorcycles.
”There are lots of searches going on and we don’t know what’s official or not but people are taking advantage and racketeering,” said a student in the Moursal neighbourhood of the city, who asked not to be named.
”They normally come in pairs. If you have a new motorbike they order you to get off and give them the key. You have to follow their orders because they’re armed,” he said.
Both the army and police have been searching houses looking for rebels or goods that were looted from state buildings.
Some residents talk of soldiers entering houses at will and stealing anything of value, including televisions or cash.
Others say there have been arbitrary arrests, targeting not just those suspected of collaborating with the rebels, but of having cheered their arrival in the capital two weeks ago.
‘Escaped prisoners’
Chad’s police chief, Idriss Dokony Adiker, said house-to-house searches could have been better conducted.
”We’re receiving some complaints from the population, who are saying that not everything is happening in a proper manner,” Adiker told Reuters.
”It’s difficult to know who is military and who isn’t. We have more than a thousand escaped prisoners … and there are lots of bandits pretending to be military operating at night.”
Déby, a former French-trained helicopter pilot who has held power for 18 years, said he would appoint presidential missions to monitor the implementation of the emergency measures.
After the lightning assault on Ndjamena by a convoy of 3 000 rebel fighters, the insurgents have withdrawn to the eastern border region with Sudan’s Darfur, blaming France’s military support for Déby for preventing his overthrow.
The French army has said it transported Libyan munitions to Chad to supply the army’s defence but has denied its soldiers fought to keep Déby in power.
On Tuesday, France demanded the immediate clarification of the whereabouts of Chadian opposition leaders.
Interior Minister Mahamat Ahmat Bachir was quoted by French radio as saying one of the men, Lol Mahamat Choua, was being detained in a military barracks. Choua was abducted from his home on February 3.
For the city’s residents, including thousands who fled to Cameroon, promises of tighter security do little to reassure.
”Eighteen years in power and nothing has changed,” said another Moursal resident, bemoaning the fact that Déby and the rebel leaders — some of them his close relatives — had brought the oil-producing country to its knees.
”It’s a family war, a clan war … the rest of us are just spectators,” he said. — Reuters