Chad - March 2025

Three journalists in Chad were arrested and detained in March on charges of working with the Russian paramilitary group Wagner and reportedly face up to 30 years in prison. The prosecutor’s office said the three journalists, who work for different media outlets, had provided Russia with information about Chad that was likely to harm the country’s military and economic interests. Other sources suggested that the arrest of one of the journalists, Olivier Mbaindinguim Monodji, may be connected to an article he wrote on the inauguration of a Russian cultural institute in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, and that another, Mahamat Saleh Alhissein, has been accused of translating Russian files on the economic and security situation in the Sahel. The Union of Chadian Journalists (L'Union des Journalistes Tchadiens, UJT) and other rights organisations criticised the detentions as arbitrary. 

Sources: Jeune Afrique, Agence France-Presse, International Federation of Journalists, The Africa Report