An attack by herders armed with machetes has killed at least 17 people, all women and children, in a village in southwestern Chad, an official for the regional governor told AFP Friday.

A dispute between nomadic Fulani herders and Ngambaye farmers over the delimitation of grazing and agricultural areas is believed to have sparked the violence, local sources said.

Fulani people are often stigmatised across the wider Sahel, accused of collaborating with violent Islamist groups that stalk the region.

“The Fulani, in collusion with others, attacked the small village. They killed six women and 11 children,” General Delegate Abdelmanane Katab said, branding the assault a “vendetta”.

The attack in the village of Oregomel on Thursday took place five kilometres (three miles) from Mandakao, where 42 people were killed in an attack a month earlier, he said.

Prosecutor Mahamat Abdou Issa told AFP 20 “assailants” had been arrested in the wake of that incident.

In southern Chad, locals following Christianity or traditional African religions often argue they have been marginalised by the majority-Muslim authorities in the capital, N’Djamena.

Separately, at least 20 people have died since last week in intercommunal violence in the eastern province of Ouaddai, according to parliamentary and local sources.
According to a source who wished to remain anonymous, the violence began after two armed youths from an Arab pastoralist community stole a motorbike from a member of the local farming population.

Both thieves died in the fighting that followed, according to the same source.
A strategic area near the border with Sudan, which sees significant population movement, Chad’s east has for several dozen years also been gripped by conflicts between Arab herders and local farmers.

According to estimates from the International Crisis Group, violence between farmers and pastoralists caused more than 1,000 deaths and 2,000 injuries between 2021 and 2024.