After delays, the Chad “National Dialogue” will start

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

On August 18, 2022, two days before the start of historic negotiations intended to pave the path for elections after 18 months of military rule, two exiled rebel commanders returned to Chad.
At a “inclusive national dialogue” beginning in N’Djamena on August 20, 2022, Timan Erdimi and Mahamat Nouri will both play a significant role. (Image courtesy of AURLIE BAZZARA-KIBANGULA/AFP)

Important national discussions about Chad’s future, which the junta in power claims will prepare the way for elections, will start on Saturday, but the forum has been marred by postponements and boycotts.

The three-week long “national discussion” will bring together more than 1,400 representatives from the military administration, civic society, opposition parties, labor unions, and rebel groups in N’Djamena.

General Mahamat Idriss Deby, the leader of the junta, is the one who initiated the talks.

After his father, who had governed for 30 years, was murdered in a military operation against rebels in April 2021, Deby, then just 37, assumed power.

After the junta’s 18-month rule, he stated that the forum should pave the way for “free and democratic” elections, which France, the African Union (AU), and others have pushed him to respect.

The “conversation,” which was supposed to start in February, has been delayed due to disagreements among the numerous rebel groups from Chad that are gathering in Qatar.

In the end, on August 8, about 40 parties agreed to a settlement that included a truce and assurance of safe passage.

A new constitution that will be presented to a referendum, institutional reform in the state, and long-term peace are all on the agenda.

The decision made at the conference will be “legally binding,” according to a decree that Junta chief Deby signed on Wednesday.

According to Saleh Kebzabo, a vice-president of the forum’s organizing committee and a former rival of the elder Deby, Deby will talk at around 10:00 am (0900 GMT).

After then, the conversation will start on Sunday or Monday, Kebzabo told AFP.

Moussa Faki Mahamat, the head of the AU Commission and a Chadian, will also speak at the beginning of the discussions.

Timan Erdimi and Mahamat Nouri, two exiled rebel leaders, traveled back to Chad on Thursday to take part in the discussion.

According to Erdimi, leader of the Union of Resistance Forces (UFR), “We signed this pact to restore Chad.”

Since its independence in 1960, Chad, one of the world’s poorest nations, has experienced several upheavals and instability.

According to observers, two of the biggest rebel groups aren’t participating in the discussions and there is a time crunch.

They include the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), which led to the elder Deby’s murder by initiating the offensive in the northeast last year.

According to FACT, the discussions are “skewed in advance.”

Wakit Tamma, a sizable alliance of opposition parties and civil society organizations, also declines to participate, blaming the junta for “human rights crimes” and getting ready for Deby’s presidential run.