Chad: French tourist's death "a tragic accident" according to another traveller

A French tourist, identified as Paul Ferreri, who went missing in northeastern Chad after heading off to visit an oasis in the desert has been found dead "after a fall", Chad's tourism minister told AFP on Friday. His death was a "tragic accident" according to another French tourist.

The 70-year-old man - from the city of Dijon, according to a French newspaper report - had been missing since Wednesday.

He was part of a group visiting Chad for the International Festival of Saharan Cultures, which began on Saturday in the city of Amdjarass, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Sudanese border.

"We found the body in the Bachikele mountains and are waiting for the prosecutor to record the findings before any evacuation to N'Djamena," Abakar Rozi Teguil, who is also minister for culture, said.

Teguil said that a search and rescue team found Ferreri "at the foot of a mountain, with an empty water bottle beside him". "He died after a fall," the minister added. The man set off with a friend, also French, "without a guide" to "explore the area" of Guelta de Bachikele, a Saharan oasis, local government representative Mahamat Togou Tchohimi said.

The two men left the group early on Wednesday "without prior authorisation" and "outside the established supervision arrangements", Chad's tourism ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

It was noticed they were missing by early afternoon and a search was launched. After two hours, a first hiker was found, saying he had got lost after trying to dissuade his companion from continuing on, it said.

The search was conducted on motorcycle, jeep and camelback, and drones and a Chadian army plane were also mobilised, sources said. The tourist was in a group of around 50 people on a trip organised by a French travel agency and a cultural association.

Another French tourist who also travelled to Chad, Tom Charbit, called the death a "tragic accident."

"I don't think Chad has much to do with it. In other words, it's an accident that could have happened to anyone, at any time and probably at any age, as long as you're hiking, as long as you're climbing slopes and scree slopes. I do a lot of hiking, I know what it's potentially dangerous," he said.

The Guelta de Bachikele is an oasis in the Ennedi Massif mountain range of northern Chad.

The city of Amdjarass is this week hosting an open-air celebration of desert culture with concerts and dance performances by artists from Chad as well as Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.