Chad
Chad ruling party backs Deby bid for sixth term
Deby, a 68-year-old former army chief who has been in power for 30 years, hailed the decision at a meeting of his Patriotic Salvation Movement.
In a decree published late Monday, Public Security Minister Mahamat Tahir Orozi said the authorities "cannot allow the holding of such protests, which have the potential to provoke public disorder across the country."
The jihadist group, which originated in Nigeria in 2009, has established bases on islets dotting Lake Chad, a vast swampy expanse on the border between Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
Aid needs are likely to surpass 2019 levels, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The landlocked central African country, impoverished despite its oil revenues, contracted a $100 million (92-million-euro) debt with Angola in 2017.
An autopsy carried out on four of the dead prisoners revealed traces of a lethal substance that had caused heart attacks in some of the victims.
Peace and Security Commissioner Smail Chergui said the continent was focused on ending the conflict in Libya, Sudan and South Sudan and calling for the lifting of sanctions on Sudan and Zimbabwe.
The attack on the remote village took place before Christmas when Jihadis approached the fishing village disguised as traders.
The central African CFA union comprises former French colonies Chad, Congo Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cameroon and Central African Republic.
Oil from landlocked Chad, piped southwestward and exported by sea via Cameroon, has increased in volume since new fields came online this year.
The attack comes after a state of emergency was declared just days ago.
The state of emergency will run for three months in the Sila and Ouaddai regions bordering Sudan where 50 people have died since 9 August in fighting between Arab cattle herders and settled farmers, the president's office said.
Eastern Chad is in the grip of a cycle of violence between nomadic camel herders - many from the Zaghawa ethnic group from which Deby hails - and sedentary farmers from the Ouaddian community.
Eastern Chad is in the grip of a cycle of violence between nomadic camel herders - many from the Zaghawa ethnic group from which Deby hails - and sedentary farmers from the Ouaddian community.
The soldiers were killed after coming under attack from jihadists in the early hours of Friday morning in the deadliest attack on the Chadian military by Boko Haram, which launched an insurgency in Nigeria a decade ago.
The raid occurred in the town of Dangdala, near the banks of Lake Chad, the sources said.
Netanyahu and Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno have "announced the renewal of diplomatic relations between Chad and Israel", a statement from the Israeli premier's office said.
During a visit to Chad on 23 December, French President Emmanuel Macron promised funds to help the vote go ahead.
Those released included Moussa Tao, arrested in 2013 on a conspiracy charge; and Colonel Haroun Bata and about 10 Chadian "mercenaries" accused of having organised an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea a year ago.