News
Chad's president, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, has ordered security forces in the province of Salamat to take military weapons from civilians and send them to prison.
"From today, any civilian you find in possession of a weapon of war in this province, you take their weapon and you put the holder in prison," he said on Friday in Am-Timan, the provincial capital, according to the African Press Agency (APA). He spoke at a meeting with officials, military commanders, notables and religious leaders, as part of a tour of provinces facing security and communal tensions. Talks covered conflicts between communities, blocked livestock-herding corridors, the province's isolation and stalled development projects.
The instruction applies to civilians holding weapons of war in Salamat. No written decree, legal basis or detention procedure was described, and APA reported no arrests or seizures.
It follows earlier disarmament instructions that Déby said had not been obeyed. APA recalled that, during a 7 November visit to another province, he suspended a military commander, removed local administrators and assigned the head of the state institutions’ security service to carry out disarmament. The new statement extends the coercive instruction specifically to civilian holders of military weapons in Salamat; it does not establish that arrests have already followed.