N’DJAMENA (Reuters) – Chad repatriated 157 of its citizens who had been detained in neighbouring Libya on Tuesday, working in partnership with the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Libyan state, its foreign ministry said in a statement.
The Chadian nationals were flown back to the Sahel country on a special flight, the statement said.
It did not say why the Chadians had been arrested but added that more repatriation flights would follow in the coming weeks in order to “release and repatriate” all Chadians still detained in the North African country, and said that a “diaspora conference” would be organised in the coming days.
The repatriation flight comes a week after President Mahamat Idriss Deby attended an international forum on trans-Mediterranean migration in Libya.
Deby, who seized power after rebels killed his father in 2021, was sworn in as president in May following a controversial election.
(Reporting by Mahamat Ramadane; Writing by Portia Crowe; Editing by Sandra Maler)