The arrangement, meant to pave the way for a return to civilian rule, was called a “key moment for the people of Chad” by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who spoke in a video released during the official ceremony in Doha.
The UN chief nevertheless insisted on the need for an “inclusive” dialogue for this to succeed.
After negotiations which he described as “arduous”, the President of the African Union Commission, the Chadian Moussa Faki Mahamat, boasted of discussions to “transcend divisions that have become anachronistic”.
For five months, various Chadian actors have been negotiating under the aegis of the Gulf emirate to put an end to decades of unrest and instability in this country of 16 million inhabitants which has experienced several coups.
The day after the death of President Idriss Déby Itno, killed at the front against rebels in April 2021, his son, the young general Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, was proclaimed president at the head of a Transitional Military Council of 15 generals.
He immediately promised free and democratic elections within 18 months, after an “inclusive national dialogue” with the political opposition and the countless rebel movements.
– “Way of arms” –
Negotiations in Doha, with around forty armed groups, prior to the future national dialogue in N’Djamena, led to the signing of the agreement on Monday.
While General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno exceptionally agreed to go to Doha, Mahamat Mahdi Ali, the leader of the Front pour l’alternance et la concorde au Tchad (FACT) remained in the Libyan desert.
FACT, one of the main rebel groups behind the attack that led to the death on April 19, 2021 of Marshal Idriss Déby Itno, who had ruled Chad with an iron fist for 30 years, finally decided not to not sign the agreement, saying in a press release that this “rejection is concomitant with the failure to take into account our demands”, such as the release of prisoners. FACT also claimed that it “remains available for dialogue everywhere and always”.
“We are still on the ground, but it is still too early to know if we are going to take up arms again, we will see what will happen in the coming days, especially with the dialogue in N’Djamena”, Brahim Hissein, in charge of external relations for the FACT representation, told AFP from Doha.
“It is an agreement that does not resolve the question of the armed opposition, since some of the main groups have not signed,” Jerome Tubiana, a French researcher specializing in Chad and its rebel groups, told AFP. “But this scenario was written in advance, since the government had made the choice to dilute the weight of the four or five main groups in the middle of a much broader representation”.
The absence of FACT’s signature leaves the national dialogue “in a situation of uncertainty”, analyzed Kelma Manatouma, a Chadian researcher in political science, while acknowledging that it is an “important step in the process of ‘appeasement’.
The Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic (CCMSR), another major rebel group, has announced that it does not want to sign the agreement, saying that the “principles for which we are fighting do not allow us to be part of a dialogue whose objectives we do not know”.
Some 42 of the 47 groups represented in Doha affixed their signatures on Monday, alongside the power.
They thus undertake to participate in the national dialogue scheduled for N’Djamena on August 20 in the presence, according to the authorities, of more than 1,300 rebel representatives, from civil society, trade unions, the opposition and those in power.
On Sunday, according to diplomats, negotiations continued to convince FACT to initial the agreement – which he himself had recently described as “a good basis”.
“Having so many signatory groups is a good start for the national dialogue,” said the leader of a signatory group on condition of anonymity, stressing that the agreement would however be “more fruitful” if FACT had also been part of it.
Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abderrahmane al-Thani said on Monday that the agreement aims to bring “a peace that will replace the turmoil and conflict that the country has known for too many years.”
To the rebel leaders who will go to N’Djamena on August 20, the authorities are offering a ceasefire and security guarantees. Together during this dialogue, they will have to decide on the organization of the presidential election scheduled for October.
General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno casts doubt on a postponement of this election for 18 months, but Paris, the African Union and the European Union are pushing for him not to touch this deadline.
Chad, a member of the G5 Sahel, is considered a key partner in the anti-jihadist struggle of Westerners, starting with France, in Central and West Africa.
