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A senior official of a party in Chad’s presidential camp has called for civilians to take back the leadership of the country’s provinces, alleging that some military governors have livestock and land interests in the very disputes they are asked to settle.
Célestin Topona Mocnga, executive secretary of the UNDR party, made the argument in an interview with the newspaper Le Pays published on 11 November; the interview’s date is not given. He said his party belongs to the presidential camp, supports President Mahamat Idriss Déby’s security tour and wants earlier commitments on the northern Miski area respected. “It is necessary to think about prioritising the return of civilian administrators at the head of the provinces,” he said. Le Pays
Some military administrators, he alleged, hold livestock or land interests and so act as “judge and party” in conflicts between communities. He offered no evidence for the claim, and the interview describes no government plan to change how governors are appointed. It is a proposal from inside the president’s own coalition, linking the handling of local violence to the question of who governs the provinces.