A leading opponent of Chad's ruling junta chief has died in an army assault on his party headquarters ahead of a May election when he was set to be the main rival to his cousin and transitional president Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno.
It came amid high tension in the centre of the capital N'Djamena on Wednesday when soldiers surrounded the party's HQ and gunfire rang out and teargas was fired.
The government spokesman said Thursday that four soldiers died and three party militants he described as "assailants".
The assault took place the day after Chad announced it would hold a presidential election on May 6, ending three years of junta rule when Deby Itno took power after his father was killed fighting rebels.
Yaya Dillo Djerou, 49, who led the opposition Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF), had been accused of leading an attack against the offices of the internal security agency overnight on Tuesday to Wednesday.
Later, internet access was cut in the capital and the army carried out an assault on the party's main office, with automatic weapons fire heard.
Dillo died on Wednesday "where he had retreated, at the headquarters of his party," government spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah, who is also communications minister, said on Thursday.
"He didn't want to surrender and fired on law enforcement," he added.
His body has been handed over to his family, with the funeral set for later Thursday, his family said.
- 'Brought to justice' -
Security forces had gone to arrest a PSF member accused by the government accused of an "assassination attempt" against the supreme court president 10 days earlier.
The junta-led government blamed the party for the attack on the offices of the internal security agency as a reprisal.
It said several people had been killed in the intelligence HQ attack but did not say who they were.
"Anyone looking to disturb the democratic process under way in the country will be prosecuted and brought to justice," the government warned Wednesday.
Speaking to AFP shortly before his death, Dillo denied any involvement in the incident, denouncing the claim as a "lie" and politically motivated.
- 'To physically eliminate me'
"I wasn't present," he said.
"The desired goal is to prevent me, to physically eliminate me... to make me afraid so that I don't go to the election," Dillo said.
He also condemned the attempted attack against the supreme court president as "staged".
He had regularly complained the ballot was rigged in advance for a victory by Deby Itno and demanded a change in the electoral calendar.
Chad is part of the Sahel, a semi-arid region that stretches from the Atlantic to the Red Sea and has been gripped by jihadist insurgencies for more than a decade.
Anger at the bloodshed has fuelled military coups in Mali and Burkina Faso since 2020, with Niger the latest to fall.
Chad is France's last close partner in the Sahel region following the forced withdrawal of French troops from Mali in August 2022, Burkina Faso in February 2023 and Niger.
Dillo had been an armed rebel turned minister and finally an opposition chief considered a dangerous rival for his cousin.
Deby Itno and Dillo were from the same Zaghawa ethnic minority, which for more than three decades has dominated the military and political elites.
Dillo was a candidate for the presidency in 2021 against his uncle, Idriss Deby Itno.
He fled the country in February of that year after security forces attempted to arrest him at his home.
The commando-style raid left several dead including his mother and one of his sons.
Deby Itno was proclaimed transitional president at the age of 37 after his father, Idriss Deby Itno, was killed while fighting rebels in 2021.
Mahamat Deby Itno had promised to hand power back to civilians and organise elections within 18 months, but subsequently extended the transition by other two years.
The opposition has asked the transitional president not to run for office in the central African country, which the United Nations ranks as the second-least developed in the world.
He had told the African Union he would not run, but a constitution adopted in a December referendum allows him to do so.