Cattle Herdsmen (Archive)
Wednesday 19 April 2023 / 21:23
At least 22 people have been killed in clashes between herders and farmers in southern Chad, officials said on Wednesday, accusing rebels operating in neighboring Central African Republic of fueling the unrest.
On Monday, Kudu farmers attacked Fulani herdsmen living in the Mont-de-Lame department, Ahmad Dar Bassin, the governor of the Logone-Oriental region, told AFP by telephone.
He said gunmen from the Kudu community, Chadian “rebels” who live across the border in central Africa, “killed two Fulani herdsmen in their camp, wounded six and lost two of their own” in clashes that followed the attack.
After that, the Kudu group attacked another village and killed four people, after which they were chased away.
Gendarmerie killed 14 of the attackers, bringing the death toll to at least 22, according to the governor.
Hassan Khalil, the deputy public prosecutor for Mont-de-Lame’s main town of Babocom, confirmed the clashes and death toll to AFP.
Tensions between nomadic Arab herders and sedentary farmers have been a long-standing problem in central and southern Chad and in the east, where many people are armed.
Farmers accuse herdsmen of usurping their lands.
Officials in Chad and the Central African Republic often accuse each other of hosting bases for insurgents who carry out attacks across porous borders.
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