Alhadj Barh kissed his wife for the first time in almost two years as the noon sun rose over N’Djamena, the Chadian capital. It was a fresh start for a guy who had been imprisoned since early that morning for his involvement in a rebel army blamed for the president’s assassination. It appears that Chad’s interim president Mahamat Idriss Deby is trying to make peace with the rebel organization Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), which is responsible for the assassination of his father, longtime ruler Idriss Deby, in 2021. In March, he pardoned 380 incarcerated members of FACT.
In early April, Barh was freed together with a number of other inmates thanks to a presidential pardon. Barh, as he sat at home with his wife and four daughters, expressed a desire to contribute to peace efforts provided the government adopted an inclusive strategy. “We are not bullies,” he emphasized. If things improve, I will do everything I can to help bring about national unity again. Younger Deby’s military administration has begun peace discussions with several rebel organizations that have long battled his father’s tyranny, but FACT has refused to participate unless its members are freed by the transitional authorities. Many members of the group’s upper echelons, including leader Mahamat Mahadi Ali, are still in prison despite the amnesty. Former maths teacher and FACT member Ouckonga Guelmine Kemnda, who was also recently freed from detention, argued that demands for unity without their release were meaningless. The 46-year-old stated to his large family, “The government says it is open to dialogue and yet the person with whom it must dialogue is condemned.”
“When we want to talk to someone, we have to stay open,” he said. Neither the remarks made by the inmates nor the future of the ongoing peace discussions have been addressed by the transitional administration. The current administration will remain in power until the scheduled elections in October of 2024. Representatives from the government signed an agreement and began “pre-dialogue” conversations with hundreds of rebels and civil society society members in August 2022, with the government of Qatar serving as mediator.
