Mangalmé riots

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The Mangalmé riots are clashes that erupted in central Chad, starting in the village of Mangalmé in the Guéra Prefecture. Here on November 1, 1965, frustration among the muslim Moubi peasantry with what was perceived as government mismanagement and tax collection abuses erupted, rapidly involving all the Guéra Prefecture. The central government, dominated by southern Chadians and hostile or indifferent to the mainly muslim central and northern provinces, had just increased the head tax; it had also extended it to women, effectively doubling it. To this must be added that often corrupt local administrators imposed tax-rates that could be higher than five to six times higher than the officially established ones. Local tensions were already aggravated by a local dispute born by an attempt to usurp the region's sultan Bachar of his position, a dispute complicated by the support given to the pretender by the Interior minister.

The revolt was brutally crushed by the army, causing five hundred persons died. Among the dead were also the local deputy to the National Assembly and nine other government officials, killed by the rioters when they went in visit to Mangalmé. The government's harshness helped spread the rebellion from Mangalmé and nearby Batha Prefecture to Ouaddaï and Salamat prefectures. It is generally believed that this event started the Chadian Civil War, that was to last till 1993.

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