N'Djamena: Police broke up a student demonstration in Chad's second city Friday, local residents said, as protests against the country's long serving ruler gather pace a month before elections.
Several hundred students had gathered to protest overdue scholarship payments in the commercial capital Moundou amid a growing crackdown on dissent in the central African country, resident said. Six protesters were arrested, they added.
The nation has been rocked by a growing protest movement in the last weeks as anger spreads at the continued rule of President Idriss Deby Itno, who has governed for 26 years and will seek a fifth term in the April 10 presidential elections.
Chad's higher education minister Mackaye Hassan Taisso confirmed the arrests to AFP, adding: "By protesting, the students disturbed primary and secondary school lessons and the police arrested six of them."
Students at the University of Moundou have not received their bursary payments for up to six months, he added.
Last month, college students protested the gang rape of a young woman, Zouhoura, by the sons of several of the country's leading officials. The woman's attackers subsequently posted images of her on Facebook, naked and crying.
On Thursday, a dozen Chadian activist groups working together under the "Enough is enough" banner urged followers to take to the streets and sound whistles to protest poor governance in the country.
At the end of February a nationwide movement to transform the nation's urban centres into "ghost towns" to protest Deby's rule was an unprecedented success, with many market places, shops and roads left virtually empty.
The oil-producing country prepares to go to the polls while grappling with record low crude prices that have hampered the government's ability to pay officials' salaries as well as student scholarships.
Chad is also faced with growing bills for its military's counter terrorism operations in northern Mali, north-west Nigeria and around Lake Chad.
AFP
