(New York) – Chadian authorities arrested Succès Masra, the former prime minister and leader of Chad’s main opposition party, at his residence in N’Djamena early on May 16, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today.
Masra’s arrest raises concerns of escalating harassment and threats against the opposition party Les Transformateurs (The Transformers) as well as other political opponents of the ruling party. If Chadian authorities are not charging Masra with a credible offense, he should be released promptly.
“Succès Masra and his party, Les Transformateurs, have the right to express their opinions freely without fear of arrest,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Chadian authorities have instead used arrests and other forms of repression to clamp down on peaceful dissent time and time again.”
A witness at Masra’s residence in the Gassi neighborhood of N’Djamena, the capital, said that government security forces arrived just before 6 a.m. to arrest Masra. Party members told Human Rights Watch that Masra, 41, was being held by the judicial police in N’Djamena, where he has access to his lawyers.
Security footage of Succès Masra being arrested at his residence in the Gassi neighborhood in N’Djamena, Chad, on the morning of May 16, 2025. © 2025 Private
At a news conference, the public prosecutor, Oumar Mahamat Kedelaye, said Masra was arrested following an intercommunal clash in the Logone Occidental province in southwestern Chad that killed 42 people on May 14. According to Kedelaye, Chadian authorities are accusing Masra of inciting hatred and violence through social media posts and implicating him in the violence. However, following the Logone Occidental violence, Masra had expressed condolences to the victims, stating that “no Chadian’s life should be taken for granted.”
While clashes between herders and farmers are common in southern Chad, intercommunal violence has become more acute over the past several years, resulting in the deaths of scores of people.
Masra and his supporters have faced threats prior to the May 2024 elections, in which Masra ran against then-transitional president, Gen. Mahamat Idriss Déby. After Déby was declared the winner, his presidency ended a transitional period that started in 2021, following the death of his father, then-President Idriss Déby Itno, who was killed while fighting an armed group a day after being re-elected to his sixth term.
Under the current government, authorities have shown opposition to debate or dissent, including open discussions about Chad’s past.
The government’s crackdown on freedom of expression and association has at times been violent: after the 2021 re-election of Idriss Déby Itno and his subsequent death, security forces used excessive force, including live ammunition fired indiscriminately, to disperse opposition-led demonstrations across the country. Several protesters were killed. Authorities detained activists and opposition party members, and security forces beat journalists covering the protests.
On October 20, 2022, security forces fired live ammunition at protesters—killing and injuring scores of demonstrators—and beat and chased people into their homes. Hundreds of men and boys were arrested, and many were taken to Koro Toro, a high security prison 600 kilometers away from N’Djamena. Several detainees died en route to the prison, some due to lack of water. At Koro Toro, protesters suffered further abuse, including torture and ill-treatment by other detainees.
In October 2023, dozens of members of Les Transformateurs were arrested in the lead-up to a constitutional referendum to allow Mahamat Déby to run as a candidate.
The period prior to the May 2024 presidential elections was also marred by violence. On February 28, 2024, security forces killed Yaya Dillo, the president of the Parti socialiste sans frontières (Socialist Party Without Borders), during an attack on the party’s headquarters in N’Djamena. More than one year on, the authorities have not clarified the circumstances of his death.
“The Chadian government should be seeking ways to dialogue with the political opposition, rather than shutting them down through the use of intimidation and violence,” Mudge said. “They should immediately release Masra if he is not charged with a valid offense.”
