At least 35 people have died in recent clashes between semi-nomadic herders and farmers in southeastern Chad, officials report. The violence erupted in Salamat province when farmers confronted a roadblock and accused local cattle herders of wrongdoing.
Provincial Secretary-General Mara Maad told AFP that the farmers’ attack on the herders on Monday prompted authorities to deploy troops, who managed to restore order the same day. Among the casualties was one soldier.
Herders and sedentary farmers in southern Chad have a long history of tension, often aggravated by crop destruction and the widespread availability of weapons.
This is not the first deadly incident: last November, 22 people were killed in herder-farmer clashes in Kabbia, also in southern Chad, while nearly 50 others died in ethnic conflicts across the country in the following two months.
Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno expressed his distress over the repeated outbreaks of violence in a December 31 speech. Political scientist Evariste Ngarlem Tolde noted that such clashes have reached “worrying proportions,” adding that local authorities’ support for herders complicates efforts to mediate these conflicts peacefully.
