On 9 October, the president of Chad’s media regulator, the High Authority for Media and Broadcasting (La Haute Autorité des Médias et de l’Audiovisuel, HAMA), Abderamane Barka, announced a directive prohibiting private media from publishing online audio-visual content outside of narrowly defined circumstances. Barka said outlets that violated these regulations would be suspended or have their licenses revoked. He added that outlets had to employ professional journalists with official press ID cards. The measures were presented as being part of a ‘cleaning up of the media landscape’ ahead of the legislative elections scheduled for 29 December. On 4 October, HAMA suspended Le Visionnaire newspaper over an article it published on alleged government corruption and suspended two senior members of its staff because they did not have press identity cards. The Committee to Protect Journalists, an NGO, accused the Chadian authorities of ‘using press accreditation as an instrument of censorship.’
Sources: La Haute Autorité des Médias et de l’Audiovisuel, Jeune Afrique, Committee to Protect Journalists (1), Committee to Protect Journalists (2), Tchadinfos
In September, prominent officials from the ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement (Mouvement Patriotique du Salut, MPS), and the opposition Socialist Party Without Borders (Parti Socialiste Sans Frontières, PSF) were reportedly detained by Chad’s intelligence services, as part of a broader pattern of arrests. According to the PSF, Robert Gam, the party’s Secretary-General, was ‘kidnapped’ on 20 September, having been subjected to ‘harassment and intimidation’ by authorities since the killing of the party’s leader Yaya Dillo in February 2024. Days earlier, Gam had threatened protests over the ongoing detention of several of Dillo’s associates. Allah Ridy Koné, an executive of the MPS, was arrested by security forces on 28 September. The reasons for the arrests remained unclear at the end of September, but according to the World Organisation Against Torture, they coincided with a ‘resurgence of arbitrary arrests and secret detentions by the intelligence services in Chad’.
Sources: Jeune Afrique, Radio France Internationale, International Crisis Group, International IDEA, World Organisation Against Torture
On 6 May, Chad held presidential elections that formally ended the three-year rule of the country’s transitional military government. Former interim president, Mahamat Déby, of the Patriotic Salvation Movement (Mouvement Patriotique du Salut, MPS) won the election in the first round, receiving 61.03 per cent of the vote, according to official results declared by Chad’s election agency, the Agence nationale de gestion des élections (ANGE) and confirmed by the Constitutional Council (le Conseil constitutionnel). Prime Minister Succès Masra, of Les Transformateurs came in second place with 18.54 per cent. The election was contested by ten candidates, only one of whom, Lydie Beassemda, is a woman. Voter turnout was reported to be 75.89 per cent of registered voters. The election results were unsuccessfully challenged in the Constitutional Council by Masra, who alleged irregularities, including ballot stuffing. Two thousand nine hundred civil society members trained by the European Union were denied accreditation to observe the election by the ANGE , but it was observed by international observers from the Economic Community of West African States and the Community of Sahel-Saharan States, which declared it to have been free and fair.
Sources: Jeune Afrique (1), Jeune Afrique (2), Voice of America, International IDEA, The Conversation, Tchad Infos
On 24 March, Chad’s Constitutional Council announced that 10 of the 20 candidates for the forthcoming presidential election in May had been barred due to ‘irregularities’ in their applications. Amongst the excluded candidates were two outspoken critics of the government, Nasour Ibrahim Neguy Koursami and Rakhis Ahmat Saleh, the former of which is reported to be the subject of a preliminary criminal investigation by the Constitutional Council for suspected forgery in relation to his application. According to ISS Africa, a research institute, the law applied by the Council to exclude Koursami and another candidate, Clément Bagaou, was obsolete. The candidates approved to compete in the election were regarded by analysts, diplomats and the political opposition as offering little serious challenge to incumbent, Interim President Mahamat Idriss Déby Into. The barring of opposition candidates follows the death in February 2024 of leading opposition figure, Yaya Dillo Djerou, during an army assault.
Sources: Jeune Afrique (1), Jeune Afrique (2), Al Jazeera, Voice of America, ISS Africa
On 28 February, leader of the Socialist Party without Borders (Parti Socialiste Sans Frontières, PSF), Yaya Dillo Djerou died after a series of violent confrontations between his party and security forces. First, on 19 February, the PSF was accused of plotting to assassinate the president of the Supreme Court. A senior official in the PSF, Abakar Torabi, was accused of instigating that plot and was arrested by the internal intelligence services (Agence nationale de sécurité de l’État, ANSE). PSF supporters are alleged to have attacked the ANSE headquarters on 27 February. Finally, on 28 February the security services attacked the PSF headquarters, taking control of the facility after an intense exchange of gunfire. The PSF headquarters were later demolished. The exact circumstances of Dillo’s death are unclear; he may have been mortally wounded in the attack on ANSE on 27 February or killed at the PSF headquarters on 28 February. He was viewed as one of the main challengers to interim president Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno in the elections now scheduled for May.
Sources: Jeune Afrique (1), Jeune Afrique (2), Jeune Afrique (3), France24, The East African
On 1 January, the transitional government announced that opposition politician Succès Masra was appointed Prime Minister. The appointment came after Masra returned from self-imposed exile in November 2023, having reached an agreement with the government of Mahamat Idriss Déby that allowed him to resume political activities in the country. Masra is the leader of the Transformers party (Les Transformateurs) Along with his support for the ratification of the new constitution in December, joining the government has caused concern among other opposition parties, and even within the Transformers party. Mr. Masra has stated that he will continue to push for elections to take place.
Sources: Africa News, France24, Voice of America, Al Jazeera
Chad completed a key step in its path to civilian government on 17 December when a new constitution was approved by referendum, with 85.9 per cent of those who voted (turnout was 62.9 per cent) supporting ratification. The referendum result was challenged in court by a coalition of opposition parties called the Bloc Fédéral, but the Supreme Court confirmed the official result on 29 December. The new constitution is in most regards very similar to the one that it replaces, maintaining a unitary state with a strong president. The vote follows a national dialogue on the constitution that took place earlier in the year, during which participants were notably split on the structure of the government and many supported a federal arrangement.
Sources: Africa News, Reuters, Financial Times, The Conversation
On 23 November, the military-led government of Chad granted an amnesty to the security forces covering their actions in suppressing protests that took place in October 2022. The government response to those protests resulted in at least 50 deaths (and possibly as many as 300) and the arrests of more than 600 people. The amnesty was approved by the National Transitional Council, an appointed body that is functioning as a legislature. The government suggested that this amnesty was an important step toward national reconciliation. However, it will also significantly impair accountability for the abuses that took place. The Chadian League for Human Rights (Ligue tchadienne des droits de l’Homme, LTDH) warned against enshrining a culture of impunity, and that reconciliation will require respect for the rule of law.
Sources: Africa News, France24, British Broadcasting Corporation, Fédération Internationale pour les Droits Humains
The level of repression against opposition parties increased in Chad in October, two months ahead of a referendum on a new constitution that is scheduled to take place on 17 December. This month was also the first anniversary of a bloody crackdown on protests on 20 October 2022. In this context, 72 supporters of the opposition party the Transformers (Les Transformateurs) were arrested at a sports ground in Ndjamena, with the government claiming that they were participating in military training. The party claims they were preparing for an event to celebrate the return of party leader Succès Masra from exile in the United States. However, shortly after Masra informed the government of his planned return, a previously unknown warrant for his arrest that had been issued in June was leaked to the media. Masra then postponed his return to the country, citing the security situation.
Sources: Human Rights Watch, Voice of America, Modern Ghana, Radio France Internationale, North Africa Post
