On Tuesday, an armed group from the Central African Republic launched an attack in southern Chad that killed at least 17 nomadic herders.
According to government spokesperson Aziz Mahamat Saleh, the assailants were pushed back by Chadian forces who intervened in response to the attack.
Saleh stated that the armed group was based in the neighboring Central African Republic and had attacked the civilians in Chad’s Logone Oriental province.
He added that four people were killed in the fighting before the army drove out the assailants and killed 13 of their fighters.
Although Logone Oriental Governor Ahmat Dari Bazine confirmed that about 20 people died in the attack, he did not provide an exact toll. He attributed the attack to the Kodos, an armed group from Chad that is based over the border in the Central African Republic.
However, there has been no immediate claim of responsibility, and it has not been possible to contact a representative of Kodos.
In response to the violence, Saleh and Bazine stated that security has been reinforced at Chad’s porous 1,000-km (620-mile) border with the Central African Republic.
