N’DJAMENA – A Chadian opposition party claims its leader was abducted by intelligence agents, saying he was the movement’s latest figurehead to fall afoul of the country’s military rulers.

Robert Gam, secretary general of Socialists Without Borders (PSF), was taken away after a meeting with other opposition members, the party’s general coordinator Mahamat Alifa Yousouf said in a statement to AFP on
Saturday.

“After the visit of comrades from the Patriots party at the PSF headquarters, secretary general Gam went missing,” the text said.

“He had been subject to harassment and intimidation ever since the odious assassination of the party’s presidential candidate Yaya Dillo Djerou last February by the military junta”, it said.

Gam’s deputy, Fatime Adoume Youssouf, told journalists late on Saturday that “three unmarked cars, with tinted glass” and “several suspicious motorcycles” were seen near the venue of Friday’s meeting.

“It is clear that secretary general Gam was kidnapped by intelligence agents,” she said.

Dillo, the PSF’s former president, was killed during an attack on his party headquarters by members of the presidential guard just two months before presidential elections.

According to the opposition, he was “assassinated” with a “bullet to the head”.
The military has denied any execution, citing the need to apprehend Dillo on suspicions he led an attack against the intelligence services to free a leader of his party.

Both Amnesty International and the World Organisation Against Torture say several opposition leaders in Chad have been arrested and held by security forces without due process.
Although fierce political rivals, Dillo was a cousin of President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno.

Mahamat Deby was proclaimed head of state by the army in April 2021 when his father Idriss Deby Itno was killed by rebels after holding power for 30 years.
In May 2024 he won presidential elections that the opposition boycotted and that international observers said were neither fair nor credible. – Nampa/AFP