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29-04-2026
N’DJAMENA: At least 42 people have been killed in eastern Chad after a dispute between two families over access to water escalated into reprisal attacks, according to Deputy Prime Minister Limane Mahamat.
Mahamat confirmed the total killed during a visit on Monday to the village of Igote. It is in Wadi Fira province, near the Sudanese border, where the violence started on Saturday.
He said 10 others were injured and transferred to a provincial health centre for treatment.
Mahamat said the violence spread across a wide area as retaliatory attacks intensified, prompting the army to intervene.
He added that a “swift response” by security forces helped contain the unrest and the situation is now “under control”.
Establishing responsibility
Authorities have launched “a customary mediation process” in the village and opened judicial proceedings to establish criminal responsibility, he said.
Intercommunal clashes linked to competition over land and water are common in Chad.
Fighting last year between farmers and herders in the southwest killed dozens and destroyed homes.
Mahamat said the government would take “all necessary measures” to prevent further instability in the eastern border region.
The violence comes as Chad faces mounting pressure from the war in neighboring Sudan.
Eastern provinces have absorbed hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict, further straining already limited resources.
In February, Chad closed its border with Sudan “until further notice”, citing concerns over fighters crossing into its territory and the threat of the conflict spilling over.
The war in Sudan has killed more than 40,000 people, according to United Nations estimates, though aid groups say the toll could be significantly higher.
The conflict has displaced at least 14 million people and triggered what humanitarian agencies describe as the world’s largest crisis, with famine conditions in parts of the country.
Long-running farmer-herder tensions
Deadly communal clashes are common in Chad, where disputes between farmers and nomadic herders have continued for years. Such conflicts are often triggered by competition over water, farmland and grazing land.
Ethnic tensions have also played a major role in recurring violence across parts of the central African country.
The arrival of refugees fleeing the civil war in neighboring Sudan has further increased tensions over resources and security in eastern Chad.
On Sunday, Mahamat said the government was taking all necessary measures to prevent the conflict in Sudan from destabilizing Chad’s border areas.
Eastern Chad has been particularly vulnerable because of its proximity to Sudan and its history of local resource disputes.
Communal clashes in Chad have killed hundreds of people in recent years. In November, 33 people were killed in a separate dispute over a well in Dibebe, in the southwest of the country.
According to the International Crisis Group, about 1,000 people were killed and 2,000 injured in around 100 clashes between 2021 and 2024.
Amnesty said authorities had failed to adequately protect the population despite repeated violence. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
