N’DJAMENA: A jailed Chadian rebel has been pardoned by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and released from prison, his brother and Chad’s government have said.
Tom Erdimi, twin brother of Union of Resistance Forces (UFR) leader Timan Erdimi, was released on Tuesday after several months’ imprisonment in Egypt.
He should return to Chad “at the end of the week,” his brother told AFP on Wednesday.
The Erdimi brothers, nephews of former Chadian president Idriss Deby Itno, were key regime figures in the 1990s.
Tom Erdimi was director of Deby’s cabinet in 1991, and in charge of certain oil-related activities in the central African state.
He and his brother rebelled against Deby in 2005, launching several offensives aimed at overthrowing the government, including one that earned them a death sentence in absentia while they were in exile overseas.
Tom’s release from prison was one of the conditions for the UFR joining a “national dialogue” in N’Djamena between civil society, opposition parties, trade unions, rebel groups and the military government of Mahamat Idriss Deby — son of the former president, who was killed during a military operation in 2021.
Government spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah told AFP that Ermini was “freed and surrounded by his children,” adding that the younger Deby had supported Tom’s release though maintained the matter was “an Egyptian affair.”
In 2021, Chad’s junta granted a “general amnesty” to rebel groups, saying it wanted to “clean the slate” and move on.
Mahamat Deby has said power will be returned to the people after an 18-month transition period and a national dialogue meant to pave the way for “free and democratic elections.”
Egypt pardons, releases jailed Chadian rebel
https://arab.news/5nhkx
Egypt pardons, releases jailed Chadian rebel
- The Erdimi brothers, nephews of former Chadian president Idriss Deby Itno, were key regime figures in the 1990s
Syria says detained senior Daesh jihadist in Damascus
- The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers
DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities have arrested a senior Daesh group official in the Damascus region in a joint operation with a US-led international coalition, a security official said on Wednesday.
Taha Al-Zoubi, also known as Abu Omar Tabiya, an Daesh leader in Damascus, was detained with several of his men, General Ahmad Al-Dalati was reported as saying by state news agency SANA.
The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers and a US civilian that Washington said was carried out by a lone Daesh gunman in central Syria’s Palmyra.
“Our specialized units, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Directorate and and International Coalition forces, carried out a precise security operation targeting” an Daesh hideout, Dalati said.
On December 20, a Syria monitor said that five Daesh members were killed in US strikes in retaliation for the December 13 attack.
It was the first such incident since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a security forces member who was due to be fired for his “extremist Islamist ideas.”
