Chad is considered a strategic partner in the Sahel region in the fight against terror. The West is holding back from criticizing the military government. Today the African country is voting on a new constitution.
“Stop the referendum and save the republic” is written on a leaflet with a large red X that opposition members distributed in Chad’s capital N’Djamena a few days ago. They are advertising against the constitutional referendum. Media representatives are there, but the gathering is quickly broken up by security forces with tear gas.
Critics see the outcome of the referendum as a foregone conclusion, says Max Kemkoye. He is the spokesman for an opposition alliance that calls for a boycott: “Chad’s problem is the army. We have to settle the question of how the army relates to democracy. We need reforms that ensure that the army serves democracy and does not is in the service of a family, a power or a clan.”
Déby promised a quick transition to democracy
The powerful family in Chad is that of the late ruler Idriss Déby. He ruled the country in an authoritarian manner for decades, and at some point there were no longer any parliamentary elections. He died in 2021 – he is said to have been killed by rebels on the way to the front. The exact background is still unclear today. The army deployed his son, then 37-year-old Mahamat Idriss Déby, head of the presidential guard.
The young Déby had repeatedly emphasized that he wanted to initiate a rapid transition to democracy, with a national dialogue, a new constitution and early elections. That was more than coup plotters in other neighboring states were offering.
The text of the upcoming constitutional referendum is also not the problem, says Yamingue Betimbaye, political analyst and head of research at the Research Center for Anthropology and Human Sciences in Chad: “If you read the text, it is strongly inspired by the 1996 constitution, for many people of the best drafted constitutions of Chad’s modern era, i.e. since independence. A form of government that lies between a strict unitary state and a federal state. The problem remains the application of this text and the institutions and personalities who have responsibility for this text to implement.”
This is the crux of the matter for critics. After all, Mahamat Idriss Déby had announced that he would not run for election himself. It was under this condition that the opposition took part in the National Dialogue. This word is no longer there, and immediately after the National Dialogue in autumn 2022, he announced that the elections would be postponed for two years.
“Chad is strategically extremely important”
The protest against this was brutally suppressed. Critics see the referendum as a means of legitimizing the military’s interim government as a permanent government. The army does not want to rule at all, emphasizes junta leader Mahamat Idriss Déby. They just want to secure the existence of the state and prevent it from sinking into violence and anarchy.
This concern probably also exists in Europe. Because there is relatively little criticism of the military junta compared to Mali, Niger or Burkina Faso, where the military also seized power, says Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation: “Chad is Strategically extremely important. So three neighbors – Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic – are countries where Russia is expanding and where there are Russian mercenaries.”
Many refugees in Chad
More than half a million people fled to Chad before the civil war in Sudan, explains Laessing. That is why the international community has a great interest in Chad remaining stable. “Chad is extremely fragile as a country and that’s why there is a concern that if you talk too much about democracy and possibly that the government of Mahamat Déby will be overthrown, there could be chaos similar to that in Libya after the fall of Gaddafi.” said Laessing.
Chadian troops are also an important partner for anti-terror operations, such as those recently carried out in Mali. This is also why many dissidents do not believe that the referendum will significantly change human rights and democracy in the country.
Dunja Sadaqi, ARD Rabat, tagesschau, December 17, 2023 1:29 p.m