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11-08-2025
N’ DJAMENA: Chad’s former prime minister and opposition leader Succes Masra has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for disseminating racist and xenophobic messages that incited violence.
Defence lawyer Kadjilembay Francis told reporters following Saturday’s ruling at a court in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, that Masra would appeal his sentence.
“He has just been subjected to ignominy and unworthy humiliation,” Francis said.
Masra, who was prime minister between January and May last year, is the head of the Transformers party and a sharp critic of Mahamat Deby, Chad’s current president.
He was accused alongside 67 co-defendants, mostly from the same Ngambaye ethnic group, of causing a clash between herders and farmers in May in Logone Occidental, in the southwest of the central African country. The fighting left 35 people dead and six others injured.
Masra has denied the charges against him, which include hate speech, xenophobia and having incited a massacre.
Before leaving the courtroom on Saturday, he gave a message to his supporters: “Stand firm.” Activists with his party said they would put out a “special message” later in the day.
The Ngambaye ethnic group enjoys wide popularity among the predominantly Christian and animist populations of the south, whose members feel marginalized by the largely Muslim-dominated authorities in N’Djamena.
Masra left Chad after a bloody crackdown on his followers in 2022, only returning under an amnesty agreed in 2024.
He faced off against Deby in that year’s presidential election, which Deby won with more than 61 percent support but Masra did not accept the results, claiming that the vote was rigged. He later agreed to serve as premier after signing a reconciliation deal with Deby.
Masra has strongly opposed the military rulers who came to power in Chad in April 2021, after the death of Deby’s father, Idriss Deby Itno, who had led the country for 30 years.
Deby took power in 2021 and legitimised his presidency with a parliamentary election earlier this year, which was opposed by Masra and his party.
Last year, Military leader Mahamat Idriss Deby had won a closely watched presidential election in Chad, according to provisional results released by its National Election Management Agency.
Deby secured more than 61 percent of the vote, according to the numbers released on Thursday, eliminating the need for a run-off with his closest rival, Prime Minister Succes Masra, who received 18.5 percent.
The victory allows Deby to hold onto the presidency in the central African country with a voter mandate.
Previously, he led the country as its interim president, seizing power after his father, the late President Idriss Deby, was killed in April 2021 while fighting a rebel group in the north of the country but his rival in the presidential race, Masra, has already indicated he will not accept the election results.
Earlier on Thursday, Masra issued a live broadcast on Facebook declaring himself the winner. He also accused Deby and other government officials of rigging the election results to hold onto power.
“A small number of individuals believe they can make people believe that the election was won by the same system that has been ruling Chad for decades,” Masra said. (Int’l News Desk)
