The announcement comes a day after heavy gunfire erupts in N’Djamena near the headquarters of Yaya Dillo’s party.

Heavy gunfire was heard on Wednesday in the capital, N’Djamena, near the headquarters of Dillo’s party, a witness told the Reuters news agency said. The shooting erupted after several people were killed in earlier clashes near the National Security Agency building.

“He didn’t want to surrender and fired on law enforcement,” Abderaman Koulamallah, the Chadian communications minister also told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

On Thursday, there was heavy military presence in the capital and access to the presidential palace was blocked. Internet access, which was blocked a day earlier, had still not been restored, the Reuters witness said.

The violence flared amid tensions ahead of a presidential election set for May and June that could return the Central African state to constitutional rule three years after military authorities seized power.

Dillo, leader of the Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF) and a cousin of transitional President Idriss Deby, had denied any involvement in the attack on the security agency.

Speaking to the AFP, Dillo, who was planning to run in the coming election, dismissed the allegation as a “lie” and said it was politically motivated. Dillo also condemned accusations by the government of a PSF-coordinated “assassination attempt against the president of the Supreme Court”, which Dillo called “staged”.