Chad’s incumbent candidate, Idriss Déby Itno, cast his vote on Wednesday in presidential elections boycotted by opposition parties and shadowed by Sudan-backed rebels committed to toppling Déby from power. Virtually certain of victory, Déby hailed the fact that the elections were going ahead despite the boycott and repeated clashes with United Front for Change (FUC) rebels.
In the dusty border town of Adre, battered pickup trucks roar around the quiet streets with clumps of rifle-toting men clinging to the roof. Most wear the distinctive brown camouflage issued to the army, but others sport the gowns and turbans favoured by the local population. In this poor, but oil-rich nation, no one raises an eyebrow at unmarked trucks bristling with machine guns.
President Idriss Déby is expected to win re-election in polls on Wednesday. But it may not seem like much of a victory. Many of the fellow tribesman who once supported him have taken up arms with the aim of toppling him, and most opposition political parties are boycotting Wednesday’s election, claiming that it is already rigged.
The World Bank said on Thursday it has clinched an interim deal with Chad to unblock frozen oil revenues owed to the impoverished African country. The global lender said the Chadian government has promised to adopt a new Budget law that will reserve 70% of its oil proceeds for poverty reduction.
A senior United States diplomat arrived in Chad’s capital on Monday to meet with officials about a dispute between the government and the World Bank over how the country uses oil royalties — a dispute that has the government threatening to shut off oil supplies by the week’s end.
African Union officials travelled to Chad on Friday to study the situation eight days after a rebel attack on the capital was repulsed. The AU civilian and military officers will stay in Chad for a week to gather information for a report to the AU’s Peace and Security Council ”for the appropriate follow-up”, according to a statement released late on Thursday.
The situation in eastern Chad, a region plagued by rebel incursions and refugee crises, has taken a dramatic turn for the worse as a rebellion against President Idriss Déby Itno gathers force, aid workers say. Rebels from the United Front for Change (FUC) left their base in the east last week and three days later launched their biggest offensive yet on N’djamena.
The possible role of outsiders in Chad’s war has come under the spotlight, with the United States expressing concern over reports Sudan was backing the rebels, and the rebels saying they would have toppled President Idriss Déby by now if it was not for the French.
Chadian President Idriss Déby on Tuesday said he had full control of the country after last week’s failed rebel offensive and vowed presidential elections would go ahead as planned on May 3. ”We have the situation in hand throughout the whole of Chad,” Déby told a press conference in N’djamena, the capital that was rocked by a rebel offensive last Thursday.
Chadian rebels who advanced on the capital in a fleet of brand-new Toyotas had clear support from Sudan, which wants to replace President Idriss Déby Itno with a pro-Sudanese leader, diplomats and human rights groups here said on Tuesday.