In a letter to Emmanuel Touade, president of the High Council of Communications (Haut conseil de la communication, HCC), RSF protested the decision to bar private, community and associative radio stations from programming "political debates" or "programmes of a political nature" during the entire legislative election campaign. The election is scheduled for 21 April 2002.

Jacqueline Moudeina, a lawyer from Chad, was announced today as the winner of the 2002 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. The announcement comes at the opening of a key meeting, Frontline's Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders, where Ms Moudeina is one of the participants.

The UN Security Council has expressed deep concern over the mounting problems affecting the political and economic situation in the Central African Republic (CAR).

A planned 665 mile (1,070 km) pipeline from southern Chad to Cameroon's Atlantic coast promises riches for both countries - especially for dirt-poor and landlocked Chad whose economy could be transformed by around $2 billion in royalties over 25 years. But the scheme has drawn criticism from human rights and lobby groups worried about environmental damage and that revenues will not benefit ordinary people. Some campaigners have urged a halt until a firmer regulatory framework can be created.

Chad's government does not plan to extradite the former military chief of the Central African Republic (CAR), who fled to Chad on Friday after several days of fighting in the CAR capital Bangui, Chadian government spokesman Moukhatar Wawa Dahab told IRIN on Monday.

Chad's minister of communication, Moktar Wawa Dahab, denied a recent report by Amnesty International in which the human rights organisation accused the government of perpetuating human rights violations begun under the regime of ex-president Hissene Habre.

Floods caused by heavy rains have affected over 350,000 people in two West African nations, prompting their governments to call for international help.

Some 129,500 people have been affected by floods in Chad, and 100 are reported dead or missing, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report dated 11 September.

Secretary Genderal of the Chadian Red Cross, Andreas Koume, reported a new outbreak of cholera in Gitte 112 km of the Capital during the last week of August. 150 cases had been recorded in the Chadian town,the Red Cross had sent out teams to chlorinate wells, and advise the population on personal and public hygiene. The outbreak was firsts recorded in June, but has not been recored as an epidemic in some areas.

UNHCR completed on Monday the voluntary repatriation from Cameroon of 288 Chadians who had fled civil war in their country in the early 1980s.

A Chadian investigative journalist, Daniel Bekoutou, is among a group of writers from 20 countries to receive grants from Human Rights Watch (HRW) in recognition of their courage in the face of political persecution, HRW announced on Wednesday.

According to information received by OMCT, an assembly of approximately 100 women met peacefully in front of the French embassy, in the early morning of June 11th 2001, with the intention to hand over a letter of protest regarding the “complicity of France in the electoral hold-up of May 20th 2001” to the French
Ambassador. It is reported that the police forces brutally put a halt to the assembly by throwing grenades at the women. Among the 14 injured, 4 are allegedly seriously hurt.

The World Bank’s ability to ensure social and environmental safeguards in the $3.7 billion Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline project is threatened because of political unrest in Chad, according to two Chadian human rights organizations. The two groups, the Chadian Association for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights, and the Environmental Defense, said that World Bank’s promise of equitable development and environmental safeguards for Africa’s largest infrastructure project, co-financed by the World Bank, is threatened because of mounting political tension in the region.

There was "relative calm mixed with latent tension" in Ndjamena and other towns in Chad on Friday following unrest related to the contested re-election of President Idriss Deby, according to a resident of the Chadian capital.

Chad's six unsuccessful presidential candidates were all picked up for questioning by police on Monday and then released an hour later. The six men were meeting just hours after it was announced that Chad's incumbent President Idriss Deby had won an outright majority in the first round of voting, making a second round unnecessary. The six opposition candidates had issued a joint statement last Thursday alleging fraud in the 20 May poll, but foreign observers said the vote appeared to be fair.

The World Bank and the IMF announced on Wednesday that they have agreed to support a comprehensive debt reduction package for Chad—one of the poorest countries on earthunder the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.

A minister in the Central African Republic has accused the security forces of killing Chadian farmers in the north of the country. The minister of rural development Salomon Namkosserena told the French News Agency that almost 60 farmers were killed in various incidents over the past month.