N’Djamena – Chad opposition leader and former prime minister Succès Masra, who has been in custody for more than a month, has ended his nearly week-long hunger strike, his lawyers said Monday.
“President Masra, physically weakened but morally combative… suspended his food strike,” the collective of lawyers defending him said in a statement Monday evening.
On Saturday, about 20 women from his opposition party, the Transformers, protested in underwear in N’Djamena to demand the release of their leader.
Le Président Dr Succès MASRA suspend sa grève de la faim : Communiqué des Avocats 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/2jdgSLw9cJ
— Les Transformateurs (@TransTchad) June 30, 2025
Arrested on May 16, Masra faces prosecution for “inciting hatred, revolt, forming and complicity with armed gangs, complicity in murder, arson, and desecration of graves”.
On June 19, his lawyers submitted a request for his provisional release, which judicial authorities rejected.
On Tuesday, he announced in a letter published by his party, that “in protest at undeserved injustices, I shall begin a hunger strike”.
On May 14, 42 people, reportedly mostly women and children, were killed in Mandakao, in the Logone Occidental region (southwestern Chad), according to Chadian justice, with Masra accused of provoking the massacre.
Masra, originally from Chad’s south, hails from the Ngambaye ethnic group and enjoys wide popularity among the predominantly Christian and animist populations of the south who feel marginalised by the largely Muslim regime in the capital N’Djamena.
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Source: AFP
