Chad's freed rebel prisoners call for leader's release

Rebels from Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), who have been jailed during the fighting in the north of the country, sit before being released at a correctional remand center, in Klessoum on the outskirts of N'Djamena, Chad April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Mahamat Ramadane

With the midday sun high over Chad's capital N'Djamena, Alhadj Barh embraced his wife for the first time in more than two years. It marked a new start for a man who, until earlier that day, had been in jail for fighting in a rebel army accused of killing the president.

In an apparent peace gesture, Chad's interim president Mahamat Idriss Deby in March pardoned 380 jailed members of the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), a rebel group accused of killing his father - longtime ruler Idriss Deby - in 2021.