The former Chadian Prime Minister and opposition leader Succès Masra was on Saturday sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined one billion CFA francs, in a verdict delivered against the backdrop of a tense political climate.
Masra, President of the Les Transformateurs party and former transitional Prime Minister, received the sentence on August 9 along with a joint fine of one billion CFA francs, according to judicial sources.
The ruling followed a trial that opened in early August before Chad’s criminal court, during which Masra faced serious charges, including the dissemination of xenophobic and racist messages, criminal conspiracy, incitement to revolt, complicity in murder, and involvement in deadly violence that left 76 people dead in Mandakao, in the country’s south.
On August 8, the public prosecutor had called for a 25-year prison term for Masra and 58 co-defendants, along with a total fine of five billion CFA francs payable to the state and the freezing of their assets. Nine other defendants could be acquitted for lack of evidence.
An economist by training with a PhD from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Masra is a former lead economist at the African Development Bank (AfDB) and international consultant.
He returned to Chad in 2024 under the Kinshasa Agreements, which ended his political exile.
Appointed transitional Prime Minister, he resigned on the eve of the May 2024 presidential election, won in the first round by Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno. Masra then became a vocal critic of the continuation of military rule, denouncing in October 2024 what he called “rigged electoralism” and urging a mass boycott of the December 2024
legislative polls, which he described as mere “window dressing for an apartheid-style regime.”
His party hailed the boycott as a “resounding failure” for the authorities and called for a “new transition” based on genuine democracy.
Despite his harsh criticism, Masra signaled a willingness to engage in dialogue in early 2025, accepting President Déby’s “fraternal hand.”
However, tensions remained high, particularly during the party’s seventh anniversary celebrations in May 2025, when Masra once again urged the government to change course, drawing criticism from across the political spectrum.
Masra was arrested by security forces on May 16, 2025. Prosecutors accuse him of inciting hatred and armed rebellion, based on an audio recording from May 2023, and of playing a role in the Mandakao killings.
During the trial, Masra dismissed the charges as a “political setup” and accused the government of violating agreements reached in October 2023.
The case comes as Chad emerges from a four-year military transition, marked by the adoption of a new constitution in December 2024 and a return to civilian rule under a former military officer.
The country remains burdened by internal political tensions, security challenges along its borders, and a persistent socio-economic crisis.
SF/lb/gik/APA