Drunken Siege

Eighteen assailants and one presidential guard died during an attack on the presidential complex of Chad amidst political turmoil in the central African nation, according to the Guardian.

Officials said 24 assailants attempted to storm the presidential palace in Chad’s capital N’Djamena armed with knives and machetes Wednesday evening. The “destabilization attempt” happened while President Mahamat Déby Itno was inside, said Foreign Affairs Minister Abderaman Koulamallah.

The attackers arrived at the complex in a few vehicles and stabbed the four entrance guards, killing one and injuring two. Following, they then walked into the presidency where other guards shot at them, killing 18 and detaining six others, reported the Guardian.

Following the attack, rumors spread online that the attack could be traced back to the Islamic militant group Boko Haram which launched an insurgency against Western education more than a decade ago, according to the Associated Press.

The group has sought to establish Islamic law in Nigeria’s northeast, and the insurgency has spread to neighboring West African countries such as Chad.

Even so, Koulamallah said that the assault was probably not a terrorist attack, as the attackers were local youths from N’Djamena, reported the wire. He also referred to the attackers as drunk “Pieds Nickeles,” referring to a French comic featuring unlucky crooks.

The attack came a week after parliamentary elections that were boycotted by the main opposition party, Les Transformateurs.

Chad has been grappling with a period of political turmoil before and after the controversial May presidential elections that resulted in a win for Déby Itno, who led the country as interim president during a period of military rule that followed his father’s death.

His father, Idriss Déby Itno, had ruled Chad since a military coup in the early 1990s but was killed by rebels in 2021.

In November, Chad also ended a defense cooperation agreement with France, leading to the withdrawal of 1,000 French military personnel. The pact with France had made Chad an important actor in the fight against Islamic militants in the Sahel.