A Chadian court has sentenced former Prime Minister and opposition leader, Succès Masra, to 20 years in prison after convicting him of hate speech, xenophobia, and inciting violence that led to the deaths of 42 people.
The ruling, delivered on Saturday in N’Djamena, the capital, follows Masra’s alleged role in triggering inter-communal clashes on May 14 in Mandakao, a town in southwestern Chad. The violence, which left mostly women and children dead, is part of a broader trend of deadly confrontations between nomadic herders and sedentary farming communities.
Masra, a vocal critic of President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, was arrested two days after the incident and charged with a range of serious offenses, including inciting hatred and revolt, collaborating with armed gangs, murder, arson, and desecration of graves.
His legal team, led by Francis Kadjilembaye, strongly condemned the verdict, calling it politically driven and lacking in credible evidence.
“Our client has just been the object of a humiliation,” Kadjilembaye told AFP.
“He has been convicted based on an empty case file, speculative claims, and no substantial proof. This is a clear example of the judiciary being used as a political weapon.”
Masra’s political party, The Transformers, announced plans to release a formal response to the ruling.
Masra, an economist educated in France and Cameroon, has long been seen as a rising opposition figure. He fled Chad in 2022 following a deadly crackdown on protesters but returned under an amnesty agreement in 2024. In a surprise political move, he was appointed Prime Minister in January 2024, a position he held until May—just months before the country’s presidential election.
In the May 2025 election, Masra contested against President Déby and officially garnered 18.5% of the vote compared to Déby’s 61.3%, though he controversially claimed he had won the election.
During his detention, Masra reportedly went on a hunger strike for nearly a month in June, underscoring the tense and highly politicized nature of the case.
The May 14 massacre is one of many violent flashpoints in Chad’s ongoing ethno-religious conflict. According to the International Crisis Group, over 1,000 people have been killed and 2,000 injured in similar clashes between 2021 and 2024.
Masra, a member of the Ngambaye ethnic group from southern Chad, remains a key figure among Christian and animist communities who have long accused the Muslim-majority government in N’Djamena of systemic marginalization.
