After the opening ceremony last Saturday and a subsequent postponement of a few days, the work of the inclusive and sovereign national dialogue was scheduled to restart on Wednesday, August 24 to run till the end of the week. Participants will first work on setting up the dialogue bodies, with the adoption of rules of procedure and the installation of a presidium. Among the approximately 1,400 participants are civil society organisations. They have already taken steps to constantly monitor the dialogue, in order to make sure their proposals are taken into consideration by the transition.

Abderamane Ali Gossoumian, the national coordinator of the Follow-up Committee of the Call for Peace and Reconciliation, explains that his organisation "will follow daily the debates which will be broadcast live on national television to try to note the important points and make proposals that can be passed on to our colleagues who are in the room."

Meanwhile exiled Chadian rebel leader Timan Erdimi Erdimi, now 67, has returned to the country last Thursday for the talks, after a decade in exile in Qatar. Erdimi, who heads the Union of Resistance Forces - widely known as UFR - is accused of leading an armed group that attempted to twice overthrow the Chadian government, in 2008 and 2019, according to VOA. Boycotts by rebel and opposition groups however remain major hurdles.

Comprising at least 40 rebel groups, Erdimi's UFR signed a peace agreement on August 8 in Doha for talks that would pave the way for elections after 18 months of military rule in Chad.

The military authorities have pledged to complete the transition next October. A deadline the network of civil society organisations thought unrealistic if a truly constructive dialogue is to be held. They support an extension as long as it is backed by a general consensus.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari earlier told General Mahamat Idris Derby a Special Envoy from the Transitional President of Chad that "common sense makes it extremely important that we be interested in the stability of Chad Republic, as it is in our own interest. He said he would "keep an ear to the ground, monitor developments closely," as Chadians hold the National Dialogue, and offered the support of Nigeria in any form required, reports This Day.

Part of this story was translated from RFI