Chad’s former prime minister and opposition leader arrested in clash probe
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/05/2025 (492 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
N’DJAMENA, Chad (AP) — Chad’s former prime minister and opposition leader Succès Masra was arrested Friday for his alleged involvement in a clash between herders and farmers in the country’s southwest a day earlier, the country’s prosecutor said.
Public prosecutor Oumar Mahamat Kedelaye said fighting Thursday in Chad’s southwestern Logone Occidental province left 42 people dead and several homes burned.
Clashes between herders and farmers, who accuse the herders of grazing livestock on their land, are common in the Central African country.
The prosecutor said Masra is being investigated on charges of inciting hatred and revolt through social media posts that called on the population to arm themselves against a community in the area. It was unclear what specific posts he was referring to.
Other charges against the former prime minister include complicity in murder, formation and complicity in armed groups, the desecration of graves and arson.
Masra’s Transformers party said earlier in a statement that their leader was “kidnapped” from his residence and expressed “deep concern over this brutal action carried out outside any known judicial procedures and in blatant violation of the civil and political rights guaranteed by the constitution.”
Ndolembai Sade Njesada, the party’s vice president, released video appearing to show armed men in uniforms escorting Masra out of a residential building.
Masra is one of the main figures opposed to President Mahamat Idriss Deby, who seized power after his father, who spent three decades in power, was killed fighting rebels in 2021.
In 2022, Masra fled Chad after the military government suspended his party and six others in a clampdown on protests against Deby’s decision to extend his time in power by two more years. More than 60 people were killed in the protests, which the government condemned as “an attempted coup.”
Following his return from exile, Masra was appointed prime minister in January 2024 in a bid to appease tensions with the opposition, four months before the presidential election. Deby won the election, but the results were contested by the opposition, which had claimed victory and alleged electoral fraud.
Masra resigned from his role as prime minister shortly after the election.
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Associated Press writer Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali contributed to this report.