N’Djamena, Chad
At least 11 people were killed at the weekend in southern Chad in clashes between nomadic herders and farmers, local authorities said on Monday, in the latest violence in a long-running conflict.
Herders on Sunday attacked a village in the Nya Pende area of Logone Oriental province, more than 600 kilometres (370 miles) south of the capital N’Djamena, provincial governor General Toke Dadi told AFP by telephone.
“Armed (herders) attacked a village in the Timberi canton at 5:00 am (0400 GMT) and killed 11 villagers, including three women and an infant,” he added.
Nine others were injured, five with gunshot wounds, he said.
“Some farmers burned to death in their huts. Fifty-seven huts were burned and several oxen were taken away,” Dadi said.
About 20 vehicles loaded with soldiers pursued the attackers.
The exact causes of the clashes were not immediately clear.
But Dadi said they could be linked to a “settling of scores” after a farmer was killed on November 30, which led villagers to attack grazing land, killing an old man and several livestock.
Local sources confirmed these attacks and the death toll separately to AFP.
Clashes between nomadic Muslim herders and largely Christian or animist indigenous sedentary farmers are common in the region but also in fertile border areas where Chad meets Cameroon and the Central African Republic.
© Agence France-Presse
