At least three people were killed on Monday in a new intercommunal clash in eastern Chad, linked to tensions over the sharing of water resources, the local state representative told AFP on Tuesday.

Initial clashes on Saturday left 42 dead after a conflict over the use of a water well broke out between two communities, Tama and Zaghawa - from which Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby is descended through his father - in the sub-prefecture of Guéréda, in the Wadi Fira province, bordering Sudan.

"We regret 3 deaths and 10 injuries in new armed clashes between the two communities," reported Brahim Issa Galmaye, the state representative in the province.

Chad is frequently affected by episodes of intercommunal violence, particularly in certain rural areas where conflicts related to land, livestock and access to water sometimes take a deadly turn.

The clash also took place in the sub-prefecture of Guéréda but in a different location in this rural area, Mr. Issa Galmaye specified.

"The situation is under control and remains in control," Limane Mahamat, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, had declared on Sunday.

Several ministers, senior local officials and the chief of staff of the armed forces had been dispatched to the scene on Sunday.

For several years, eastern Chad, a transhumance zone and bordering war-torn Sudan, has been plagued by conflicts between different communities: on one side, sedentary indigenous farmers, and on the other, nomadic Arab herders.

Last November, at least 33 people were killed in intercommunal clashes in a village in Hadjer-Lamis province, in central Chad, following a dispute over access to a water well.

Agro-pastoral conflicts have caused more than a thousand deaths and 2,000 injuries between 2021 and 2024, according to estimates by the NGO International Crisis Group.

AFP