Source : Sahel weather July & august 2024 

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Chad continues to face up to the terrorist onslaught, year in, year out. At the beginning of July, the Chadian army declared that it had carried out operations in the Lake Chad province, neutralizing more than 70 terrorists and destroying the largest Boko Haram base in the area. According to the army, this base contained five camps. Washington also provided the Chadian army with communications equipment. Harris radio chargers, multi-band Harris radios, small intelligence and field information tablets, as well as aircraft systems control and analysis equipment, were all donated by the US military.

Meanwhile, the country is facing major flooding. In the north of the country, in the Tibesti province, torrential rains "swept away thousands of stores and vehicles", reports Agence France Presse (AFP). The toll: at least 60 dead. The waters did not spare the capital N'Djaména. The torrential downpours damaged numerous public and private infrastructures, and rendered some main roads impassable.

At the same time, community dissension between farmers and breeders shows no sign of abating. Quite the contrary, in fact. The latest incident was in the sub-prefecture of Goré, in the Logone Oriental region of southern Chad. Six people were killed and four wounded in new violent clashes. Between 2021 and 2024, the NGO International Crisis Group recorded 1,230 deaths and more than 2,000 injuries, due to agro-pastoral violence in the south and center of the country. 

On the diplomatic front, N'Djaména and Tripoli are trying to mend fences, with the aim of strengthening cooperation between the two countries, which are linked by strong historical ties. With this in mind, discussions between the Chadian President and the head of Libya's national unity government focused on the reopening of their respective diplomatic representations, as well as the construction of frameworks for consultation on cross-border security issues.  In addition, the Chadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that N'Djaména had repatriated, by special flight, 157 of its nationalsdetained in neighboring Libya, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations and the Libyan state.

On the other hand, two months after the presidential election, opposition politician Succès Masra has finally come out of his silence. During a live chat on social networks, the former prime minister was quick to castigate the outcome of the electoral process. "They were in the minority, but they had a weapon of destruction to try to stifle the majority (...) By violating laws, by refusing to make the results file available to candidates, by refusing to make copies of the minutes available, by preventing people from filming the minutes", he lamented. In this connection, the platform of opposition political parties known as GCAP (Groupe de concertation des partis politiques) has published a manifesto criticizing the texts on the new administrative and electoral boundaries. These texts have been denounced as "irregular and iniquitous" by the GCAP.

At the same time, the suspension of the main news media, Tchadinfos, prompted a number of reactions. The reason was "a complaint from Mr. Abakar Manany, former advisor to the Head of State, demanding the withdrawal of all articles concerning him, which Tchadinfos refused to do", reports the Chad Online Media Association (AMET). According to Tchadinfos managing director Mamadou Djimtebaye, the complainant, through his lawyers in South Africa, "contacted our hosting provider in the United States to suspend us". Subsequently, the media's editor-in-chief, Oumar Ali Badour, was arrested on August 7, detained by the intelligence services and then released 24 hours later.

Finally, a preliminary investigation into President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno's suspected ill-gotten gains has been opened in France. This investigation follows revelations by the French media outlet Mediapart, which in November 2023 reported spending in excess of 900,000 euros on suits, shirts and luxury clothing. According to the investigation, these payments came from a mysterious company called MHK Full Business, registered in N'Djamena and with an account at the Banque Commerciale du Chari (BCC).