The clashes took place on Wednesday in Miski, a town in northern Chad’s remote Tibesti region, a mountainous desert area bordering Libya and Niger that has long been plagued by tensions over rich gold deposits.
For years, local armed groups have blocked state access to the site and its resources.
A military unit overseeing mining activities came under attack from the “Miski self-defence committee, resulting in the deaths of two officers and nine wounded,” the army said in a statement.
The Miski self-defence committee also issued a statement Thursday saying it “deplored the loss of life” after Wednesday’s clashes, adding it refused to be “held solely responsible” for what it called “serious incidents”.
The army also accused the militia of “repeated acts of provocation and threats” despite a peace signed with the government in April 2025 that included general amnesty for those involved in clashes in 2019 and 2020.
Since Chad’s independence from France in 1960, the Tibesti region has attracted scores of illegal artisanal miners, mostly from Chad but also from Sudan and elsewhere in Africa, as well as members of the security forces.
Miski committee spokesman Ahamat Molikni said despite previous deaths of “our young people under circumstances that our committee attributes to the military… we have chosen dialogue and restraint”.
The committee said it remained committed to the peace agreement and urged “its full implementation by all parties, notably the provisions regarding the suspension of mining activities”.
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