Armed with bows and spears, young villagers march in lines through the forests of southwestern Chad, listening to signals from their leader, to train in anti-kidnapping tactics.
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In small groups, some crouch behind the trunks of eucalyptus trees while others crawl through the undergrowth in the early morning sunlight.
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Another signal is given, and everyone stops, and the bowstrings and slingshot shots are drawn back towards the imaginary target.
They all shouted in unison to release the hostages and put down their weapons.
Isolated villages in the densely populated western region of Mayo-Kebbi have been a hunting ground for kidnappers for more than two decades.
Feeling abandoned by the Chadian government, residents have formed a committee to use the few resources they have at their disposal to fight the wave of abductions.
“Around 1 a.m., armed men entered my father’s house and abducted me and my cousins,” student Beatrice Naguita said, staring blankly into the distance.
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“We were held captive in the bush for two weeks and tortured while my father collected the amount he demanded,” Nageeta, 22, said of her ordeal in April 2023.
“As a woman, I have lost my dignity,” she added, speaking in the ochre-walled courtyard of her home in Para, the region’s main city.
Barka Tao, coordinator for the Development Assistance Agency, said exact figures for kidnapping victims were hard to come by.
“Some people won’t speak out for fear of retaliation, but there may have been close to 1,500 victims over a 20-year period,” he said.
In the past, children from the semi-nomadic Fulani people, also known as the Puru, were targeted because they were perceived to be wealthy.
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But no one is immune: over the past decade, farmers, traders, civil servants, teachers and NGO workers have also been taken.
Tao’s group says kidnappings are on the rise, ransoms are higher than ever and violence has escalated, sometimes resulting in the deaths of hostages.
One of the world’s poorest countries, Chad, located in Central Africa’s vast Sahel region, has long been plagued by rebellions and coups.
Even in less arid areas, such as the south, deadly clashes are common as settled farmers accuse herders of grazing their livestock on their land and destroying their crops.
Kidnappers sometimes benefit from the complicity of some people in the village, Tao said, adding that it could be out of jealousy or financial motives.
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“There is complicity among village elders and within the security forces,” Thao said, showing a document listing contact details allegedly found on the kidnappers’ mobile phones.
Authorities did not respond to AFP requests for comment on the allegations.
Security Minister Mahamat Shalfadin Margi acknowledged there was local complicity.
He said that after taking office in March 2023, he dismissed local officials in the region, including the governor and the gendarmerie commander.
“But that didn’t solve the problem. The problem is more complicated than that,” he said.
Kidnappers also hide and operate on the other side of Chad’s fragile border with Cameroon and the Central African Republic.
The military build-up since 2020 has not prevented this carnage.
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Another obstacle is the lack of government control in an area known as the “Triangle of Death,” said Nestor Deri, 51, a journalist and author who has written about kidnappings for more than 20 years.
“The government seems preoccupied with the rebellion in the north and sees it as an epiphenomenon,” he said.
In various places, residents have had enough and have formed committees to continue monitoring.
“We are like private intelligence agents, we act as the eyes and ears of the governor and the security forces, passing on information to them,” said Amos Mbairo Nangyo, 35, head of one of the groups.
“We guide the military police in the bush, but if a kidnapping occurs we are the first to chase the perpetrator,” the security company manager added.
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“We will pursue them armed with bows and spears,” he continued, watching the recruits training in the forest.
Mbairo Nangyo claims that over 4,000 youths have joined the anti-kidnapping group.
But faced with kidnappers armed with Kalashnikovs, they have little to work with.
“This is dangerous volunteer work and we are asking the state for resources to get around, motorbikes or horses or even boots,” he said.
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