The Prime Minister of Chad, Succès Masra, promised, Monday March 4 on Radio France Internationale (RFI), that an “international type investigation” would be carried out by his government to “determine responsibilities” in the death, Wednesday February 28 , the main opponent of the junta, killed in an army assault on his party headquarters.

The Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF) accused the army of having “executed” its president, Yaya Dillo. The rest of the opposition cited an “assassination” to prevent him from running for president in two months, and Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for an “independent investigation” with “foreign assistance” into the “murder » from the rival and cousin of the transitional president, General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno.

“The government is committed to carrying out an international-style investigation which will identify responsibilities at all levels. There are photos, but there is a film, the film of the events,” Mr. Masra, visiting Paris, told RFI, according to the French radio website.

Mr. Dillo was killed on Wednesday in the army’s assault on his party’s headquarters in N’Djamena, “because he refused to surrender” and because he “himself fired on the forces of the “order”, the Minister of Communications, Abderaman Koulamallah, told AFP, denying “any execution”. “He was executed,” “at point blank range,” with a bullet to the head, Robert Gamb, spokesperson for the PSF, previously told AFP.

“A single bullet to the head.”

Mr. Koulamallah claims that the assault left seven dead: four soldiers and three supporters of Mr. Dillo. Photos, which AFP was able to consult, are circulating among those close to Mr. Dillo, but not authenticated, showing close-ups of the head of the remains of a man resembling Mr. Dillo exactly, a small orifice sharp surrounded by a black halo right in the middle of the right temple.

“HRW examined several photos sent by a reliable source close to [Mr.] Dillo, showing him dead and bearing the impact of a single bullet in the head,” the NGO also wrote. “The circumstances of Yaya Dillo’s murder are unclear, but her violent death illustrates the dangers facing opposition politicians in Chad, particularly in the run-up to elections,” HRW concluded two months later. the presidential election of May 6 for which Mr. Déby announced his candidacy on Saturday.

Then a young general of 37 years, Mahamat Déby was appointed by the army, on April 20, 2021, transitional president, at the head of a junta of fifteen generals, upon the announcement of the death of his father, Idriss Déby , who had ruled Chad with an iron fist for thirty years. The new strongman had promised to return power to civilians after an eighteen-month transition but, when this term expired, he extended it by two years.