N’DJAMENA, Chad (BN24) — Former Chadian Prime Minister Succes Masra, a prominent opposition figure and vocal critic of President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of inciting ethnic violence, hate speech, and xenophobia. The ruling was handed down Saturday by a court in the capital, N’Djamena, following deadly intercommunal clashes in the country’s southwest that left 42 people dead, most of them women and children.
The court found Masra guilty of fueling tensions that erupted on May 14 in the village of Mandakao, where ethnic conflict between Fulani nomadic herders and Ngambaye farmers escalated into a massacre. Masra, a southern native from the Ngambaye ethnic group, was arrested just two days later and charged with inciting hatred and revolt, forming and aiding armed gangs, as well as complicity in murder, arson, and desecration of graves. Nearly 70 other defendants were tried alongside him for their alleged roles in the violence.
Chad’s public prosecutor had sought a 25-year prison term for Masra, who served briefly as prime minister from January to May 2024 after entering a reconciliation agreement with Deby’s administration. His legal team condemned the verdict, calling the trial politically motivated and lacking in substantive evidence.
“Our client has just been the object of a humiliation,” said lead defense attorney Francis Kadjilembaye. “He has been convicted based on assumptions, not facts. What we saw was a blatant weaponization of the judicial system.”
Masra’s allies from the Transformers Party said they would issue a formal statement, while rights groups and civil society activists raised concerns over judicial fairness and due process. Masra’s defense highlighted the absence of direct links between their client and the Mandakao killings, pointing out that no concrete evidence was presented during the trial. They also revealed that Masra endured a hunger strike in detention throughout much of June.
The conviction marks a dramatic reversal for Masra, who returned to Chad in early 2024 under a political amnesty after years in exile following a brutal crackdown on his movement in 2022. Though he later accepted the post of prime minister, his tenure was short-lived, ending just months before he challenged Deby in the May 2024 presidential election. Masra secured 18.5 percent of the vote, compared to Deby’s declared 61.3 percent, but disputed the results and claimed victory.
The deadly clash that triggered the legal proceedings was rooted in a long-standing conflict over land use in southern Chad, where tensions between pastoralist Fulani herders and sedentary Ngambaye farmers have intensified in recent years. According to the International Crisis Group, these disputes have claimed more than 1,000 lives and left over 2,000 injured in Chad between 2021 and 2024.
The ruling against Masra underscores growing concerns about political repression and interethnic strife under Deby’s government, as Chad navigates a fragile post-conflict transition following the death of longtime ruler Idriss Deby Itno in 2021.
Credit: Punching.com
