Heavyweight mediator Qatar seeks to host Chad political talks

The killing of former Chadian President Idriss Deby led to further unrest in N’Djamena.

Qatar has reportedly offered to host conflict-resolution talks in Doha between Chad’s different warring factions, three political sources from the African country have told Russia’s Sputnik news agency.

The sources stated that the the Chadian military refused to participate in meetings inside Chad and talks are likely going to be organised “in the coming period” in the Qatari capital instead.

It is hoped that the talks will take place once all parties reach an agreement over the meetings’ procedure.

Qatar welcomes Sudan political agreement

National reconciliation talks are currently scheduled to take place on 15 February, and are aimed at restoring civilian rule, but it’s not clear if Doha’s mediation will compliment or replace these discussions.

In April of 2021 violent clashes erupted between rebels from the Front for Change and Concord in Chad [FACT] and the Chadian armed forces during the country’s latest presidential elections.

Former president Idriss Deby, who was re-elected at the time for a sixth-term, was killed on 20 April by the FACT while visiting front-line soldiers fighting the rebels.

The late president was later replaced by his son General Mahamat Idriss Deby, who later named a 40-member transitional government in May that is scheduled to remain in office until the end of 2022.

Deby also formed an interim parliament in September, the National Transitional Council [NTC], comprising of 93 members.

During the same month, the new President of the Chadian Transitional Military Council visited Qatar, but there was no mention of a potential meeting between all parties in the Gulf state.

In early 2021 Qatar and Chad restored diplomatic ties, after the latter cut off relations with the Gulf state amid the 2017 Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] crisis.

Chad had accused Qatar of seeking to destabilise the Central African country through its neighbour Libya. In turn, Doha said N’Djamena was taking part in a “political blackmail against the State of Qatar”.

Qatar’s mediation role in Chad goes back as far as 2009, when it sponsored the signing of the “Doha Accord”, also known as the “Darfur agreement”, between Khartoum and N’Djamena.

The agreement, co-sponsored with Libya, was signed amid tensions between Sudan and Chad in 2008, with both countries accusing each other of supporting insurgent groups and rebel attacks inside their territories.

Chad has long accused Sudan of supporting rebels who sought to oust late president Deby. Whereas Sudan accused Chad of supporting rebels in the western province of Darfur.

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