At least 17 people, all women and children, were killed on Thursday in a brutal attack by suspected Fulani herders in Oregomel village, located in southwestern Chad. The victims included six women and eleven children, according to regional official Abdelmanane Katab.
The attackers, reportedly armed with machetes, struck the village just five kilometres from Mandakao — a nearby community where 42 people were killed in a similar incident just one month earlier.
Authorities say the violence is rooted in a long-standing dispute between nomadic Fulani herders and local Ngambaye farmers over access to land for grazing and farming.
Chadian prosecutor Mahamat Abdou Issa confirmed that 20 suspected attackers have been arrested in connection with the killings.
“This is a deeply disturbing pattern of violence that threatens the stability of rural communities,” Katab stated, adding that investigations are ongoing.
In a separate but related incident, at least 20 people have died since last week in intercommunal clashes in the eastern Ouaddai province, according to local leaders and members of parliament.
Intercommunal violence between herders and farmers is a recurring issue in Chad and across the Sahel region, often fuelled by competition for land and water, ethnic tensions, and weak security presence in rural areas.
Chadian authorities say they are taking steps to restore calm and bring those responsible to justice.
