Eleven Chadian opposition members still in detention

Eleven Chadian opposition members including two party leaders are still in detention one week after being arrested during a banned demonstration.

The eleven including party leaders Mahamat Bahr Bechir and Gapili Godebne, are in N’djamena Prison for “participation in unauthorized assembly,” according to a judiciary source.

“They have been placed under arrest and are awaiting trial but the clerks are on strike, which suspends everything,” a spokesman for UNDR, the main opposition party, told AFP.

“They have been locked up among 100 other detainees … They have high morale and more than ever determined to defend the will of our people,” one of their supporters, Abdelkerim Yacoub Koundougoumi, wrote on Twitter.

The activists were arrested on Thursday, November 16, during a march in the streets of the capital organized by the opposition despite the ban by the authorities and subsequently dispersed by police.

The opposition coalition, National Opposition Front for Change (FONCAC) are calling for the “immediate and unconditional release of those arrested”.

The opposition is protesting against the government over the management of social crisis in the country that has led to months of strikes by officials in the education and health sectors over unpaid wages.

The judiciary has however suspended its strike earlier this week after meeting with President Deby promised to examine their demands.