U.N. soldiers Tuesday left a camp in the strategic town of Kidal in Mali’s volatile north, which has been wracked by jihadist and separatist violence, several sources in the peacekeeping mission told AFP.   

“We left Kidal this morning,” a source in the U.N. peacekeeping mission based in the town said.    

Following a coup in 2020, Mali’s new military rulers in June ordered the peacekeepers out, proclaiming the “failure” of their mission.   

The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), whose strength has hovered around 15,000 soldiers and police officers, has seen 180 of its members killed.  

The original plan was for the peacekeeping force to have withdrawn from the West African nation by the end of the year, but the UN troops began withdrawing from their compounds as early as July.   

The U.N. peacekeeping force says it has had to destroy or decommission equipment such as vehicles, ammunition and generators that it was unable to take away, in accordance with UN rules.   

The MINUSMA withdrawal has exacerbated rivalries between armed groups present in the north of the country and the Malian state.   

These groups do not want the UN camps handed back to the Malian army, saying such a move would contravene ceasefire and peace deals struck with Bamako in 2014 and 2015.   

However the army is pushing to take back control of the evacuated camps.   

The predominantly Tuareg separatist groups who oppose the army have resumed hostilities against it.    

The Al-Qaeda-linked Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) has also stepped up attacks against the military.   

That means that MINUSMA’s pull-out is all the more perilous, taking place against the background of this renewal of hostilities — and on what are perceived to be restrictions imposed by the authorities on its ability to maneuver. 

 
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A leading Turkish bank, Ziraat Katilim, has opened a branch in Mogadishu, becoming the first foreign bank to operate in Somalia in over a half-century, officials said.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Sunday in Mogadishu, where officials hailed the inauguration as a “historic moment.”

“This marks more than 50 years [since] the first international bank that comes to the country,” the governor of Somalia’s central bank, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, told VOA Somali in an interview.

All foreign banks closed down in 1970 when the Somali government nationalized the banking system.

“We welcome the investment and the establishment of Ziraat Bank,” Abdullahi said. “It will boost our financial sector, it will create jobs, it will attract or facilitate investment.”

Abdullahi said the presence of Ziraat Bank will also make it easier for Somalis to conduct transactions outside the country.

The bank’s operations will focus on corporate financing and trade financing, officials said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“They will focus on businesses, medium and large; trade financing will be a big part of their activities since they are the only bank that can provide a letter of guarantees,” Abdullahi said.

Ziraat Bank was one of two banks to obtain license from the Somali government last year; the other was Banq Misr of Egypt. Abdullahi said Ziraat Bank met all the requirements to operate in the country.

In a post on X, the bank confirmed opening of the branch in Mogadishu, its second in Africa.

Despite the decades-long civil strife in Somalia, the business sector has thrived in certain areas such as telecommunications, and the country has domestic, private banks. But the conflict discouraged significant foreign investment in Somalia.

Turkey’s prominent role in Somalia’s humanitarian and development activities started in August 2011 when then prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Mogadishu amid the fighting against al-Shabab, to draw international attention to Somalia’s deadly famine, which killed tens of thousands of people.

Since then, Turkey has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian assistance and development. Turkish companies also invested Mogadishu’s air and seaport.

Turkey built its biggest embassy in Africa, and its largest overseas military facility in Mogadishu.

After the United Arab Emirates, China and India, Turkey is now the fourth Somalia’s largest trading partner, with imports from Turkey amounting to an estimated $409 million in 2022, according to Abdullahi.

Somali still faces security challenges, with al-Shabab carrying out deadly attacks, mainly in the country’s south-central regions. But last year Somali government soldiers supported by local fighters launched a military campaign which drove al-Shabab from vast areas in the countryside.

“The security situation in the country has improved significantly, and the government has done remarkable job in fighting al-Shabab and terrorism,” Abdullahi said.

“That will give, not only Ziraat Bank, but also other international investors the confidence to invest in the country.”

Ziraat Bank is the first foreign bank to re-establish itself in Somalia, but it will not be the last, Abdullahi predicted.
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The number of internally displaced people within the Democratic Republic of Congo has reached a record 6.9 million due to escalating violence, the United Nations said Monday.   

The conflict between Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) rebels and militias loyal to DR Congo’s government has intensified in the eastern province of North Kivu since early October, particularly north of the provincial capital Goma.   

The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said many people who have fled their homes but stayed within the DRC’s borders desperately needed help to meet their basic needs.   

“The IOM is intensifying its efforts to address the complex and persistent crisis in the DRC as the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) climbs to 6.9 million people across the country — the highest number recorded yet,” it said in a statement.   

“With ongoing conflict and escalating violence, the DRC is facing one of the largest internal displacement and humanitarian crises in the world.”   

The M23, which has captured swathes of territory in the eastern DRC since 2021, is one of several militias holding sway over much of the region despite the presence of international peacekeepers.   

The IOM said that as of October 2023, about 5.6 million IDPs were living in the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, and Tanganyika.   

“Conflict has been reported as the primary reason for displacement,” it said.   

In North Kivu up to one million people have been displaced due the ongoing conflict with the M23.   

“As the security situation, particularly in North Kivu and Ituri, continues to deteriorate, movements become more frequent and humanitarian needs soar,” the IOM said.   

Fabien Sambussy, the IOM’s DRC mission chief, added: “For decades, the Congolese people have been living through a storm of crises.”   

“The most recent escalation of the conflict has uprooted more people in less time like rarely seen before. We urgently need to deliver help to those most in need.” 

 
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A hooded man burst into the 42-year-old woman’s tent while her children were out searching for food, then raped her in the displacement camp where she had fled war in eastern Congo.

“I wanted to scream [but] he took my mouth and he threatened me with death,” said the mother of four, who was abandoned by her husband after she became disabled in a motorcycle accident several years ago.

Now, she says, she lives in fear and hesitates to let her children leave her side.

Sexual violence by armed men against displaced women is increasing rapidly in eastern Congo as yearslong conflicts continue. The trend underscores the disproportionate consequences for women and girls in the region’s perpetual state of war. The Associated Press is not identifying survivors who spoke to journalists in the Bulengo displacement camp.

In Bulengo and other displacement sites nearby, an average of 70 sexual assault victims each day visit clinics run by Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym MSF.

Conflict has simmered in eastern Congo for nearly three decades. The United Nations estimates that more than 130 armed groups are active in the country’s northeast, vying for land or resources while some have formed to protect their communities. Sexual violence has long been used as a weapon of war by armed fighters in the region.

More than 4 million people were displaced within Congo because of conflict in 2022, the most in Africa and second in the world only to Ukraine, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center. Of nearly 100,000 people who arrived at displacement sites near the eastern city of Goma in July, nearly 60% were women and girls, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Doctors Without Borders treated 1,500 female victims of sexual violence in just three displacement camps outside Goma in July, more than double the number in May, the organization said in a September 18 report. 

Survivors and aid workers say displacement rips people from their livelihoods and leaves women and girls vulnerable to assault.

Like many other displaced single mothers, the 42-year-old mother of four is struggling to feed her family and unsure when she might return home.

With the help of her two sons and two daughters, she had cultivated her fields of cassava, potatoes and beans. But in February, armed rebels and Congolese security forces clashed close to her home in the northeastern village of Karenga.

“We were forced to flee, leaving behind all our belongings,” she said. Limping, she walked an entire day to bring her family to one of more than 100 sites where displaced people have gathered around Goma.

One May evening, after three months of struggling to feed her family in a camp with tens of thousands of other displaced people, she sent her children to find food. They hadn’t eaten all day, she said. That’s when a stranger found her alone and raped her.

After the attack, she confided in a friend who directed her to a clinic run by MSF. The charity group along with United Nations agencies and local organizations help provide medical services, psychological treatment, latrines and other measures to improve conditions for survivors of sexual violence.

But their role is limited. Deliveries of food and other basic needs to the camp are infrequent, said Rebecca Kihiu, MSF’s regional sexual violence activity manager.

The camp’s conditions leave women vulnerable to abuse. Shelters are little more than plastic sheets, with no way of securing them from intruders, Kihiu said. Armed men lurk outside the camp, where women and girls are forced to venture to find firewood and other necessities.

“They know that they will go and find these assaults outside the camp. But they have no option,” Kihiu said.

Already scarred by fleeing their homes, survivors of sexual assault in camps like Bulengo live with the experience long afterward. “It’s a trauma that will stay for a lifetime,” said Esmeralda Alabre, coordinator for UNFPA gender-based violence programming in northeast Congo.

A mother of eight in the same displacement camp received some medical help after she was raped. But she is still afraid, especially at night. She now arranges her children around her when they sleep, hoping their presence will deter a future aggressor.

Kihiu says some groups of women band together on trips outside the camp for added security, but this tactic falters if they need to split up to collect resources more efficiently.

For hundreds of thousands of other displaced women in northeast Congo, escalating armed conflict stands in the way of a return to normal life. The two women interviewed by the AP said they think each day about how they can return to farming in their village.

And each night they fear for their safety.

“Let the government do everything to end this war so that we can give up this life of misery,” the mother of four said. 
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A glittering crown on her head and a bouquet of flowers in her hands, Andreia Solange Sicato Muhitu beamed at being named the co-winner of the inaugural Mr. and Miss Albinism Southern Africa pageant. 

The 28-year-old Angolan model has competed in beauty pageants in her home country since her teens and won some of them. But none made her feel more beautiful or purposeful as the pageant for people with albinism that was held this month in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. 

“I can be that inspiration for young girls, especially those with albinism, to feel comfortable and beautiful in their own skin,” Muhitu said. “That is the strong message we are hoping to send out there.” 

Misunderstood condition

Albinism, an inherited genetic condition that reduces melanin pigment production, is “still profoundly misunderstood,” according to the United Nations human rights agency. People with the condition have pale-colored skin, hair and eyes, are vulnerable to sun exposure and bright light, often have eyesight problems, and are prone to developing skin cancer. 

Although traditional beauty pageants have come under criticism for objectifying women’s bodies, Muhitu thinks the October 14 event where she was crowned could bring about positive change in parts of Africa where people with albinism are treated with disdain, ridicule and even violence driven by dangerously misguided superstitions. 

“This crown gives me the opportunity to change the lives of people living with albinism in ways I never imagined, not just in my country, but in the entire region. I don’t feel shamed, I feel empowered,” she said, shaking hands with people eager to congratulate her. 

The superstitions include the belief that having sex with a person with albinism can cure HIV or that their skin, hair, feet, hands, eyes, genitals or breasts have supernatural powers to bring good luck or boost the effectiveness of witchcraft potions, according to the U.N. and rights activists. In Malawi and Tanzania, people with the condition are sometimes killed for their body parts. 

They typically face daily prejudice despite anti-discrimination laws. She and other pageant participants talked about rejection by families and fathers who denied paternity once they realized a child had albinism. 

The contestants also highlighted how they need affordable skincare services and cancer treatment but more often receive hate, mocking or insults. 

Muhitu, who works as head of the tourism department in southeastern Angola’s Cuando Cubango province, said ridicule at school almost derailed her dreams, but celebrating her skin color is helping her and others push back against stereotypes and stigma. 

“The progressive laws on paper and the ugly reality on the ground are miles apart,” Muhitu said, adding: “It is time for soft power. We can change mindsets through modeling contests, storytelling, music and any outlets that are interesting. Art forms can be a powerful tool to change mindsets.” 

Albinism is more common in sub-Saharan Africa, where it affects about 1 in 5,000 people. The prevalence can reach 1 in 1,000 in some populations in Zimbabwe and in other ethnic groups in southern Africa, compared to 1 in every 17,000 to 20,000 in North America and Europe, according to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

‘We are no different’

The 18 contestants who participated in the regional pageant in Zimbabwe came from countries that also included South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Angola and Tanzania. They included fashion designers, health workers and professional models. 

Waving their national flags, they entertained a small audience with poetry, song and dance performances. They elegantly cat-walked in professional wear, evening gowns and African animal skin outfits before answering questions from a panel of judges on a variety of social and economic topics. 

Held under the theme, “Into the light,” the pageant was aimed at shining a spotlight on the “boundless talents” of people with albinism in a region where they often face harsh treatment and stigma, event organizer Brenda Mudzimu, who also has albinism, said. 

“We are mentally and physically tortured, yet we are no different from any other person except skin color,” said Mudzimu, whose Miss Albinism Trust founded the event as a local Zimbabwean contest in 2018. 

The contestants were judged for their charisma, confidence, poise, quality of walk and intellect. The Mr. Albinism Southern Africa title was claimed by Zimbabwean Ntandoyenkosi Mnkandla, 26, a trainee paralegal. 

Winners also received cash prizes, trophies, medals and flowers for categories such as Miss Personality and the People’s Choice awards. 

Muhitu, who received $250 for winning the Miss Albinism prize, commended the growing number of events that celebrate people with albinism in Africa. 

“Pageants are a powerful way of showcasing our limitless potential. I love them and I want to keep on inspiring young girls to follow their dreams,” she said. “People living with albinism have dreams, they have talent, and they are amazing people. But they will stay in the background if they are not given a chance to sparkle.” 
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Britain’s King Charles III begins a four-day tour of Kenya on Tuesday, his first trip to Africa since becoming king following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, last year. His objectives include addressing what Buckingham Palace officials describe as “painful aspects” of Britain’s colonial past with the East African nation. He’ll also discuss issues related to the climate crisis and the importance of national security. VOA Nairobi Bureau Chief Mariama Diallo reports.
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Protests in Mozambique over disputed local election results resulted in the deaths of a police officer and a civilian Friday, a corruption watchdog group said. Police reported a total of 70 arrests in four cities but not any fatalities. 

The unrest followed Thursday’s official validation of the election results, which gave the ruling Frelimo party victory in 64 out of 65 municipalities. A consortium of election observers had reported widespread ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and falsification of results in favor of Frelimo in the October 11 elections. 

Demonstrators barricaded streets during the protests, which were concentrated in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, and the northern cities of Nampula and Nacala. 

In Maputo, the main opposition party, Renamo, led its supporters in a march. Other groups of protesters blocked main avenues with piles of burning tires and trash. Riot police and plainclothes officers dispersed crowds with tear gas and bursts of AK-47 gunfire into the air. 

The police officer was killed in Nampula and the civilian in Nacala, according to the Center for Public Integrity, a Mozambican anti-corruption organization. At least two other people in Nampula were seriously injured by tear gas grenades, including a 6-year-old child, local television channel TV Sucesso reported. 

Police spokesperson Orlando Mudomane said 60 people were arrested in Nampula, four in Maputo, and the remainder in Nacala and the central city of Quelimane. Police were seen arresting several people inside the headquarters of Renamo’s Maputo branch. 

Mudomane said 10 people were injured during Friday’s protests, but he did not confirm any deaths. 

Peaceful Renamo-led demonstrations have taken place across the southern African nation of 32 million since the elections. The election results reduced the number of municipalities under Renamo control from eight to zero. 

A parallel count of the vote by the consortium of election observers concluded that Renamo beat Frelimo in the major cities of Quelimane, Nampula, Matola and Maputo. This would have put an opposition party in control of the capital for the first time since Mozambique’s independence from Portugal in 1975. 

Frelimo and Renamo fought a bloody civil war between 1977 and 1992 in which over 1 million people are estimated to have died. Following a peace settlement, Mozambique held its first democratic elections in 1994. 

A dispute over the results of the 2014 general election resulted in more hostility between the parties, and a new peace agreement was signed in 2019. 
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Nigeria’s Supreme Court confirmed President Bola Tinubu as the winner of February’s presidential election, dismissing challenges brought by his political opposition, who cited flaws in the voting system and said Tinubu lacked qualifications.

The court said Thursday that the challenges were “devoid of merits.” The ruling follows a decision in which two other candidates saw their petitions rejected by an appeals court last month, clearing the way for Tinubu’s presidency.

The candidates who appealed the election results, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, or PDP, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, stated that the electoral commission failed to electronically transmit results from polling stations to an online portal. Abubakar and Obi came in second and third, respectively, in the February vote.

They also argued that Tinubu had won less than 25% of the vote in the federal capital, Abuja, short of the legal threshold to become president.

Abubakar’s lawyers tried to submit evidence that Tinubu had forged academic credentials from an American university, but the court denied this, stating that it was not reflected in the original petition within the time frame provided by the Nigerian Constitution.

“Facts and documents which were not pleaded in the petition have no place in deciding the dispute between the parties,” Justice Inyang Okoro said.

The court’s ruling follows a trend in which several other Nigerian elections have been challenged for alleged ballot-tampering and fraud, but none have been overturned.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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According to a 2023 report by the Global Action for Sustainable Development, Liberia is losing an entire generation to drug abuse, with its capital, Monrovia, alone having more than 800 drug hubs and an estimated 100,000 drug users. An older generation of rehabilitated child soldiers have moved to join the fight against drugs, using a behavioral therapy approach. Senanu Tord reports from Monrovia. Video editor: Henry Hernandez.
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Zimbabwe’s vice president on Wednesday said the country has lost more than $150 billion due to sanctions imposed by the European Union and countries such as the United States following reports of election rigging and human rights abuses in the early 2000s.

Speaking to protesters rallying against the sanctions, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said the measures were also hurting the entire southern Africa region.

He called the sanctions an “albatross” around Zimbabwe’s neck, as they include financial restrictions that isolate Zimbabwe from global access to capital.

“Since 2001, we estimate that Zimbabwe has lost or missed over $150 billion through frozen assets, trade embargos, export and investment restrictions from potential bilateral support, development loans, IMF and World Bank balance of payments support and commercial loans,” Chiwenga said, calling the sanctions “heinous and illegal.”

Stevenson Dhlamini, an economics professor at National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe, said the figure of $150 billion is consistent with what the Zimbabwean government has been saying over the years.

“The cumulative effect of the sanctions by the U.S., EU and the U.K. do have a cumulative impact that could be to that level,” Dhlamini said.

Not everyone agrees. 

Prosper Chitambara, senior economist with the Labor and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe, said multiple factors have affected the country’s economy, not just the sanctions.

“How do you then separate the effects of sanctions, say, from the effects of corruption, or from the effects of external shocks or climate-induced shocks?” he said, “Coming up with a number is a very difficult and tedious exercise to do.”

After the protest, which attracted mainly civil servants and ruling Zanu PF supporters, Chiwenga vowed that Zimbabwe’s economy will prevail over the sanctions.

“Sanctions are really hurting Zimbabweans,” he said. “By now, we could have gone far in terms of our economic growth. Our sin is that we took land [from white commercial farmers] and gave it to our people. Nothing else. The rest they are talking about is nonsense.

“But we think outside the box,” he said. “So, sanctions or no sanctions, Zimbabwe will prosper.”

Hopes of lifting the sanctions were dashed after many observer missions to Zimbabwe’s August 23 general election, including the Southern African Development Community, said the polls were not credible.
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The chief justice of Kenya has sent a proposal to parliament that calls for removing the death penalty for the crimes of murder, violent theft and treason, saying the proposed changes aim to put the country’s laws more in line with international human rights standards.

Kenya’s Chief Justice Martha Koome is seeking changes to certain laws drafted in 1930, before Kenya gained independence, that seek harsher penalties for capital offenders.

Senator Samson Cherargei, a ruling party member of parliament, said he supports the proposed change to the death penalty.

“The right to life is very critical in our constitution and should not be taken in any format, even legally or illegally,” he said.

Bob Mkangi, a constitutional lawyer, said Kenyan laws need to change so that they reflect reality.

“For instance,” he said, “the death penalty … is there in our law books. But as Kenyans are aware, we sort of have a silent moratorium on the issue, because even those who have been condemned to death, no one has ever been hanged since the mid or late ’80s.”

The judiciary also advocates changing the life sentence penalty to a maximum of 30 years. Some lawmakers, including Cherargei, are opposed to reducing the length of life sentences.  

Congested prisons have long been a problem in Kenya, and legal experts say correctional facilities are filled with inmates convicted of petty crimes who have become a burden to taxpayers.

Prisons should be correctional and rehabilitation facilities and not just a place to house and punish offenders, Mkangi said.

“There are alternatives for dealing with some of these offenses,” he said. “Not everyone needs to be locked up, which again has a cost implication for the taxpayer.”

Mkangi said that because the criminal justice system’s philosophy is correction and rehabilitation, it doesn’t make sense to sentence someone to life in prison.

“How can you say you’re rehabilitating someone if you say they will be condemned to death, or they will be condemned custodially forever?” he said.

Kenya’s judiciary also aims to revise legal codes to safeguard intersex individuals within the criminal justice system; transfer the burden of proof in cases of incitement to violence and disobedience from the defendant to the prosecution; and abolish some minor offenses.
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Chad’s transitional government installed a civilian defense minister Monday to prepare for a return to constitutional rule. The move comes amid fresh protests and accusations that the military junta is intimidating and silencing the opposition ahead of December’s constitutional referendum and elections.

Chad’s Transitional Military Council says Dago Yacouba officially took up the post on Monday. President Mahamat Idriss Deby appointed Yacouba on October 21 to help fight armed gangs and rebel groups and maintain peace as the central African state military junta prepares for a constitutional referendum on December 17.

Speaking on Chad’s state TV, Yacouba said he will ensure that government troops defend Chad from what he calls forces of destabilization for civilians to live in peace and unity. 

He vowed never to betray the confidence entrusted to him, saying he would serve Chad to the best of his ability and not cater to the egotistical interests of people looking to destabilize state institutions.

Yacouba added that after the constitutional referendum, he will make sure peace reigns in Chad until the mandate of the Transitional Military Council led by Mahamat Idriss Deby ends when elections are held in November 2024 to hand over power to civilian rule.

Before his appointment, Yacouba served as deputy secretary general of The Patriotic Salvation Movement MPS, Chad’s former ruling political party. MPS was created by Chad’s former president Idriss Deby Itno in 1990.

Deby was killed as he visited troops fighting rebels on April 20, 2021 at the age of 68. His son Mahamat Idriss Deby was named head of an 18-month transitional council on April 21, 2021.

Djelassem Donangmbaye Felix, coordinator of A New Day, one of Chad’s about 300 opposition political parties, said Yacouba was appointed defense minister because of his loyalty to the military junta and the Deby family. He added that Yacouba will crack down on the opposition to maintain the Deby family grip on power. 

 

Donangmbaye said there are no signs Chad’s Transitional Military Council will listen to divergent views that will help the central African state organize free, fair and transparent elections for a smooth transition to civilian rule. He said frustration is accumulating because Chad’s military leader prohibits public political meetings to educate civilians on rights and duties during elections and the December 17 constitutional referendum.

Donangmbaye spoke via a messaging app from Chad’s capital N’Djamena. He said patriotic civilians, not people who have worked closely with the iron-fisted rule of the Deby family, should be appointed to top government positions.

Chad’s opposition says that when Yacouba was taking office, protests were held asking for the release of scores of people arrested since Oct. 20, 2022, during demonstrations in which 128 people were killed and 518 injured.

Chad state TV showed images of fresh protests for an end to what the opposition calls the violent crackdown on civilians that criticize the military junta.

Chad’s military government says claims it has prohibited political rallies are not true, but that it expects each opposition leader to obtain authorization before holding gatherings attended by more than two dozen civilians. The military junta says when it is informed of potential meetings, it takes measures to protect people, property and public infrastructure should demonstrators become violent.

Matkissam Gouverneur Faycal, political affairs lecturer at the University of N’Djamena, said some opposition parties that want the military government to step down manipulate public opinion to give the impression that all is wrong in Chad.

He said the appointment of a civilian defense minister is not an indication the military junta will stop fighting crime and making sure political parties and activists respect Chad’s laws. It is the duty of the military, he said, to continue to ensure that peace reigns in Chad while respecting the rights of civilians.

Yacouba replaced General Daoud Yaya Brahim, who resigned with Chad’s Secretary-general Haliki Choua Mahamat after separate tapes purportedly showing them engaging in sex acts were shared on social media. Chad’s opposition says the tapes are an indication that people of questionable morality have been appointed to top government positions in Chad.

Chad has not responded to allegations that President Deby forced government officials to resign to ensure the transition to democratic rule is free of scandals.
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