A court in Chad has sentenced former prime minister and opposition leader Succes Masra to 20 years in prison, convicting him of hate speech, xenophobia, and inciting a massacre. The verdict was delivered Saturday in N’Djamena.
Masra, one of President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno’s most outspoken critics, was found guilty of inciting inter-communal violence that led to the deaths of 42 people on May 14, mostly women and children in Mandakao, southwestern Chad. The state prosecutor had sought a 25-year sentence.
Lead defense lawyer Francis Kadjilembaye condemned the verdict, calling it “a humiliation” and asserting that Masra was convicted on “an empty dossier” without evidence. “What we have witnessed is the weaponisation of the courts,” he told AFP.
Masra’s Transformers Party activists announced plans to issue a “special message” later on Saturday.
Arrested on May 16, two days after the violence, Masra faced charges including inciting hatred and revolt, complicity with armed gangs, murder, arson, and desecration of graves. He was tried alongside nearly 70 other men accused of involvement in the killings.
Originally from Chad’s south and belonging to the Ngambaye ethnic group, Masra enjoys significant support among the region’s predominantly Christian and animist communities, who feel marginalized by the largely Muslim-dominated regime based in N’Djamena.
Throughout the trial, Masra’s defense maintained that no concrete evidence was presented. His lawyers reported that he went on a nearly month-long hunger strike in June while in detention.
Masra had fled Chad following a violent crackdown on his supporters in 2022 but returned in 2024 under an amnesty agreement. Trained as an economist in France and Cameroon, he emerged as a fierce critic of the government before being appointed prime minister five months ahead of the 2024 presidential election after signing a reconciliation deal with President Deby.
He ran against Deby in the 2024 presidential election, officially securing 18.5 percent of the vote against Deby’s 61.3 percent, though Masra claimed victory.
The violence on May 14 reportedly stemmed from a dispute between Fulani nomadic herders and Ngambaye farmers over grazing and farming land boundaries. According to the International Crisis Group, conflicts between pastoralists and sedentary farmers have caused over 1,000 deaths and 2,000 injuries in Chad between 2021 and 2024.
