Chadian security forces opened fire on anti-government demonstrators in the country’s two largest cities Thursday killing at least 60 people, the government spokesman and a morgue official said.
Authorities imposed a curfew after the violence, which came amid demonstrations in the central African nation against interim leader Mahamat Idriss Deby’s two-year extension of his power.
Thursday’s unrest was unprecedented in Chad, which saw little public dissent during the previous regime of Deby’s father, who ruled for more than three decades until his assassination last year.
Another 32 protesters were killed in Chad’s second-largest city, Moundou, according to an official in the city’s morgue. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said more than 60 people were wounded. These were the deadliest anti-government protests since Deby took over in the wake of his father’s assassination over a year ago—instead of following the Chadian constitution's line of succession, in what opposition parties originally called a coup d’état.
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