Chadian police used tear gas to disperse youths protesting anti-austerity measures in N'Djamena on Monday, arresting more than 60 students and schoolchildren, an AFP journalist on the scene said. Riot police were stationed outside some schools and at several key intersections in the capital, the journalist said.

Police spokesman Colonel Paul Manga confirmed the arrests, adding that the youths were "being held by the crime squad." He told AFP that several cars were stoned during the unrest. All primary and secondary schools in N'Djamena, along with universities, were closed on Monday morning after the main higher education union called for a protest against civil service pay cuts imposed by the government this month. The Union of Teachers of Chad (SET) and Union of Trade Unions of Chad (UST) went into a general assembly meeting in the morning, a unionist told AFP.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2018