Curfew declared in Chadian towns after least 60 people killed in protests

A nighttime curfew has been declared in four Chadian cities after the military violently repressed banned protests took place on Thursday (20 October), killing at least 60 people, injuring nearly 300.
Security forces opened fire on demonstrators in the country’s two largest cities after hundreds across Chad took to the streets to demand a quicker transition to democratic rule. The country’s prime minister subsequently announced the nighttime curfew in towns of N’Djamena, Moundou, Doba and Koumr until the “total restoration of order“. The vast, military-run Central African nation has been in crisis since the April 2021 death of President Idriss Deby, who ruled with an iron fist for three decades. The protestors demanded the ouster of his son, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who seized power in the immediate aftermath and initially promised an 18-month transition to elections, but on 1 October he announced they would be pushed back by two years.
On the international scene, the United Nations and the African Union (AU) were among the voices condemning the lethal use of force on civilians. “I firmly condemn the repression of demonstrations that led to deaths in Chad,” African Union Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat, who is a former prime minister of Chad, tweeted, calling for a peaceful solution to the crisis. “It’s clear that an impartial investigation is needed to determine if protesters resorted to looting and violence and if security forces unlawfully resorted to lethal force across the country,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa Director at Human Rights Watch. Riots have been intermittent in Chad since Deby seized power last year, but Thursday’s appeared to be the bloodiest.