Description: More than 42 people were killed in the Wadi Fira province in eastern Chad near the Sudanese border after a dispute over water resources rapidly escalated. The Chadian military was forced to intervene as the violence exceeded larger areas and retaliatory attacks were launched by the attacked group. Interethnic violence is not uncommon in Chad as herders and farmers oftentimes engage in armed confrontations over land disputes and water resources. Chad’s eastern border has been indefinitely closed due to the civil war in Sudan after fighting between the SAF and the RSF abruptly spilled into the country earlier this month. The country is also the largest recipient of refugees from Sudan as more than 1.5 million people fled the civil war across the Chadian border.
Impact: Interethnic conflicts in the eastern parts of the country are most likely exacerbated by the civil war in Sudan as Chad is facing an internal poverty and refugee crisis. The farmers and herders disputes in the country have a historic background and are fueled by more than 200 ethnic groups residing in Chad which indicates a likely escalation of the confrontations in the short to mid – term period. The combination of degraded domestic economy and large influx of refugees would likely create further interethnic tensions that could spiral towards sporadic armed conflicts causing further internal instability in the already destabilized country.