Chad’s ruling military junta on Thursday announced a national forum that was designed to chart the country’s future has been postponed by nearly three months, reported Africa News.
Last year, Lieutenant-General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno took over at the head of a junta called the Transitional Military Council (TMC) after the death of his father and veteran President Idriss Deby Itno.
President Deby, who led the country for three decades, was killed after being injured in fighting with the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), a large armed group with a rear base in Libya. His death announcement came just a day after he was announced as the winner of the presidential election, handing him a sixth term in office after 30 years of iron-fisted rule.
Idriss dismissed Chad’s government, dissolved the parliament, repealed the constitution, and promised to conduct free and transparent elections in 18 months. In August, he announced that a committee would organize a national dialogue with a view to holding presidential and parliamentary ballots. In December, Deby announced that the forum would start work on February 15.
But, on Thursday, the presidency said on Facebook that an inclusive national dialogue that the putschists had declared on New Year’s Eve would start on February 15 has been postponed until May 10.
Precursor talks in Qatar with armed Chadian rebel groups, aiming at bringing them into the dialogue, have also been postponed.
A senior official in the dialogue’s organizing committee said the talks which were previously scheduled to start by the end of January, will now begin on February 27. The armed groups have yet to agree among themselves on taking part, the official said.
The African Union (AU), European Union (EU), and former colonial power France have however called Chad’s transitional government to abide by the 18-month deadline, which would mean that elections would be held in late 2022.
