N’Djamena – A Chadian judge on Wednesday ordered former prime minister and opposition leader Succes Masra placed in detention, nearly a week after his arrest on suspicion of inciting hatred, his lawyers said.
Masra faced off against President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno in a presidential election last year. While the official result gave him 18 percent of the vote to Deby’s 61 percent, Masra claimed victory and has become a fierce opponent of the president.
Masra was arrested on May 16, accused of inciting hatred in connection with deadly clashes in the southwest of the country.
He also faces charges of revolt, forming and being complicit with armed groups, complicity in murder and arson.
Chad Opposition Leader Detained For Allegedly Inciting Violence Among Supporters pic.twitter.com/pQnv7PTfgD
— TVC News (@tvcnewsng) May 17, 2025
His lawyers said that Masra, who has been in police custody since his arrest, was brought before a public prosecutor and an investigating judge, who ordered his provisional detention.
Two days before his arrest, 42 people, mostly women and children, were killed in violence in Mandakao in the Logone-Occidental region, officials said.
A group of lawyers for the Chadian state said in a statement to AFP that Masra was “the main perpetrator” but that 82 other people had also been arrested.
At a press conference at Masra’s Transformers party headquarters, the politician’s lawyers denounced what they called “a political-judicial cabal” and a “conspiracy” against their client.
One local source said that the cause of the May 14 violence was thought to be a dispute between ethnic Fulani nomadic herders and local Ngambaye farmers over the demarcation of grazing and farming areas.
Conflicts between pastoralists and farmers are estimated by the International Crisis Group to have caused more than 1,000 deaths and 2,000 injuries between 2021 and 2024.
Masra is ethnic Ngambaye and enjoys wide support in the southern region, whose people are mostly Christian and animist and complain of being marginalised by the mainly Muslim central government.
His Transformers party had said that Masra had been abducted from his home. A post by the party featured an unverified video showing him leaving his residence surrounded by around a dozen armed men in military uniform.
Former Chad PM Masra arrested over alleged links to deadly clash
He is suspected of spreading hateful messages on social media linked to the violence in which at least 42 people died, Oumar Mahamat Kedelaye said.
Masra’s Transformers party said he had been “kidnapped” by… pic.twitter.com/gdOVAhFJLL
— City Mirror (@citymirrorKE) May 17, 2025
‘State lie’
Masra’s supporters say one audio message presented by the authorities as evidence against Masra dates from two years ago.
“It is clear that this is a set-up and an extremely crude state lie… concocted by a government scared of the popularity” of Masra, his supporters said in a statement at the weekend.
The 41-year-old economist, who trained in France and Cameroon, was a fierce opponent of the authorities before they named him prime minister five months ahead of the presidential election.
He served as premier from January to May last year after returning from exile and signing a reconciliation deal with Deby.
Like other opposition figures, Masra fled after the army and police opened fire on demonstrators protesting an extension of the political transition under the ruling junta in October 2022.
Up to 300 people died according to international NGOs – 50, according to the junta.
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Picture: X/@LeeGolden6
Source: AFP
