Daily Times

Tensions eased in Chad on Friday following a day of unprecedented violence at protests that left around 50 people dead across the country. Chad’s government had on Thursday announced an overnight curfew after the deadly clashes between police and demonstrators protesting the military’s grip on power. Chadian Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo put the official toll at around 50 dead, saying most fatalities occurred in N’Djamena and the cities of Moundou and Koumra, while more than 300 people were injured in the violence. Kebzabo also announced the suspension of “all public activity” of major opposition groups, including the Transformers party and civil society coalition Wakit Tamma. In the southern districts of the capital, where most of the clashes took place, there was a relative calm on Friday morning, though debris from burnt tyres and the remains of makeshift street barricades littered the streets. Law enforcement officers, some of them hooded, were seen sitting in vehicles to deter further protests. In Chagoua, south of the capital, women wearing yellow waistcoats and carrying brooms and pickaxes cleaned the streets, while bus services gradually resumed.