By Madjiasra Nako
N'DJAMENA, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Villagers killed a chief and three people connected with him on suspicion they were all involved in kidnapping children for ransom in southwestern Chad and detained dozens more, the prime minister said on Monday.
Of the 47 alleged members of a child kidnapping ring held, nine later died "under circumstances that have yet to be detailed," Prime Minister Emmanuel Nadingar said in a televised address.
Child theft is common in the region of the impoverished central African country and farmers have been forced in some cases to sell cattle to get their children back, according to human rights groups.
"A well-organized group of citizens, acting on their own, killed in a barbaric fashion the chief and three of his associates in the village of Mata Lere," Nadingar said.
The government was investigating, he said.
"This is a sad incident," said Dezoumbe Passalet, head of rights group Human Rights Without Borders. "But the government needs to take advantage of this situation to resolve an issue that has impoverished many farmers of the region."
Southwestern Chad is peopled largely by herders, and its proximity to the porous Cameroonian border makes it a hotspot for bandits and criminals who can move back and forth to escape police. (Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Matthew Jones)
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