Chad’s former prime minister and prominent opposition figure, Succès Masra, has been placed in provisional detention, nearly a week after his arrest on accusations of inciting hatred, his legal team confirmed on Wednesday.
Masra, who ran against President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno in last year’s presidential election and officially secured 18.5 per cent of the vote to Deby’s 61.3 per cent, had disputed the result, claiming victory.
He was arrested on May 16 in connection with violent clashes that broke out in the country’s southwest, resulting in the deaths of 42 people, mainly women and children, in the village of Mandakao.
The violence is believed to have stemmed from a dispute over land use between Fulani nomadic herders and local Ngambaye farmers.
Masra faces multiple charges, including inciting hatred and revolt, forming and aiding armed groups, complicity in murder, and arson.
His lawyers said he had been held in police custody since his arrest and was brought before a prosecutor and an investigating judge, who ordered his provisional detention.
Masra, 41, is an ethnic Ngambaye from the Christian-majority south of Chad, a region that has long complained of marginalisation by the predominantly Muslim central government. He enjoys strong support in the area.
Once a staunch critic of the ruling authorities, Masra was unexpectedly appointed prime minister just five months before the 2024 election, serving in the role from January to May that year.
The recent ethnic clashes come during a broader pattern of tension in Chad, with the International Crisis Group reporting that farmer-herder conflicts have killed over 1,000 people and wounded 2,000 more between 2021 and 2024.
