A conflict "between two families" broke out on Saturday due to a dispute concerning "access to a water well" in eastern Chad, and killed at least 42 people, Brahim Issa Galmaye, the government delegate to the Wadi Fira province, announced on Sunday. According to the government, the situation is now under control.

Published on: 04/27/2026 - 00:06 Modified on: 04/27/2026 - 08:04

At least 42 people were killed on Saturday in an inter-community clash in eastern Chad, the government delegate on site announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday April 26.

“The conflict broke out following a dispute over a well between two families living” in this territory, declared Brahim Issa Galmaye, government delegate to the province of Wadi Fira, in the sub-prefecture of Guéréda. “At least 42 people were killed,” he said.

Several ministers, senior local officials as well as the chief of staff of the armed forces were dispatched to the site on Sunday.

“The situation is under control and remains under control,” Limane Mahamat, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Territorial Administration and decentralization, said in the evening on public television.

For several years, eastern Chad, a transhumance zone and strategic region on the border with war-torn Sudan, has been plagued by conflicts between different communities, mainly between sedentary indigenous farmers and nomadic Arab herders.

Frequent episodes of violence

In neighboring Sudan, the civil war which has pitted the Sudanese army against the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) since April 2023 has left tens of thousands dead and displaced more than 12 million people, including nearly a million in Chad, according to the UN.

See alsoChad closes its border with Sudan in the face of repeated armed incursions

Referring to this violence, the Deputy Prime Minister considered that it "results from a context", in reference to the conflict in Sudan. “We will do everything to contain the situation and prevent our country from being won over by this conflict, which, I repeat, does not concern us in any way,” he insisted.

Last November, at least 33 people were killed during intercommunal clashes in a village in the province of Hadjer-Lamis, in central Chad, following a dispute over access to a water well.

Chad is frequently affected by episodes of intercommunal violence. Particularly in certain rural areas where conflicts linked to land, livestock and access to water sometimes take a deadly turn. Agro-pastoral conflicts have caused more than a thousand deaths and 2,000 injuries between 2021 and 2024, according to estimates by the NGO International Crisis Group (ICG).

With AFP

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