At least 42 people have been killed and 10 others injured following violent clashes between rival ethnic groups in eastern Chad, authorities confirmed on Sunday.
The violence, which occurred in Wadi Fira province, reportedly began as a dispute over access to a water well but quickly escalated into widespread communal fighting across several communities.
Officials said an initial disagreement between two families spiralled into retaliatory attacks, leaving villages burned and casualties mounting. Authorities have since deployed a high-level delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Limane Mahamat to the affected area, stating that the situation has now been brought under control.
Communal violence remains a persistent challenge in Chad, where tensions between farmers and herders frequently erupt over limited water resources and grazing land. The latest clashes come amid increased strain from refugees fleeing the ongoing conflict in neighbouring Sudan, further stretching scarce resources.
Authorities said measures are being taken to prevent the unrest from spilling across borders as regional insecurity continues to deepen.
Similar incidents have turned deadly in the past, including a clash in November in Dibebe, south-west Chad, where 33 people were killed in a dispute over a water source.
According to the International Crisis Group, more than 1,000 people were killed and 2,000 injured in about 100 communal clashes across Chad between 2021 and 2024. Meanwhile, Amnesty International has documented seven instances of herder-farmer violence between 2022 and 2024, resulting in 98 deaths and linking the unrest to climate pressures and weak law enforcement.
Amnesty also warned that delayed security responses and a lack of accountability have fuelled a growing sense of impunity, leaving communities increasingly vulnerable to recurring cycles of violence.
