An important Chadian rebel leader, in exile for years after trying to overthrow former President Idriss Déby Itno, returned to N’Djamena on Thursday August 18, two days before a national dialogue between the civil and armed opposition and the ruling junta, noted an AFP journalist.
Timan Erdimi, the leader of the Union of Resistance Forces (UFR), whose columns swooping down on N’Djamena in 2019 were halted by bombings from French army planes, landed at the airport from N’Djamena where around fifty relatives were waiting for him at 08:10 (07:10 GMT) Timan Erdimi must participate, from Saturday, in a major inclusive national dialogue, which must lead to elections “free and democraticand the transfer of power to civilians.
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Life imprisonment
The head of the UFR, who had lived in exile for ten years in Qatar, is a member of the Zaghawa ethnic group like his uncle Idriss Déby, who ruled Chad with an iron fist for 30 years before be killed while going to the front against the rebels in April 2021. In 2019, after his failed offensive, the Chadian justice sentenced Timan Erdimi in absentia to a life sentence. Timan Erdimi, in traditional white clothes, hugged several relatives who were waiting for him at the airport, noted an AFP journalist.
The rebel, 67, is a cousin of Mahamat Idriss Déby, the new strongman of Chad, who took power following his father Idriss Déby, at the head of a Transitional Military Council (CMT). On August 8, Timan Erdimi’s UFR, alongside some forty other rebel groups, signed an agreement in Qatar with the ruling junta, providing in particular for a “cease fire“. The signatory groups are invited to participate in an inclusive national dialogue, which is due to open on August 20, for a period of three weeks, in N’Djamena. This dialogue must lead to elections.free and democraticand the transfer of power to civilians.