Chadian opposition leader Succès Masra begins hunger strike

“I have no other choice but to protest with my body,” Succès Masra is quoted as saying by his relatives, according to the Cameroonian media 237online . In a letter addressed to his supporters and published on Tuesday, June 24, the Chadian opposition leader announced that he was beginning a hunger strike to protest his detention, which he considers arbitrary. Masra was arrested on May 16 and charged with “inciting hatred and rebellion, forming and complicity in armed gangs, complicity in murder, arson, and desecration of graves.”

“From the prison where he is being held, Succès Masra sent a letter to his activists gathered on the balcony of l'Espoir, the headquarters of his political party. In the 37-point document, the leader of the Transformers party describes the conditions of his arrest, the dark hours experienced by the party, the repression, the pressures, the injustices, among other things,” adds Le Journal du Tchad .

“Starting tonight, in solidarity with all of you, and in protest against undeserved injustices, I am going on hunger strike to demand the release of the energies of this people imprisoned by these injustices and inequalities. This is the means I have in prison.”

A former Prime Minister and long-time opponent , he came second in the 2024 presidential election, won by Mahamat Idriss Déby . He had nevertheless claimed victory and denounced a “misappropriation” of the results.

His arrest and prosecution follow a massacre on May 14 in Mandakao, in the southwestern province of Logone-Occidental, in which 42 people lost their lives. The Chadian justice system accuses him of provoking the killings, based on an audio recording dating from 2023, in which Masra calls on the people of the South to arm themselves for self-defense. His lawyers denounce these remarks as taken out of context and a political trial. They point out that their client had been the subject of an international arrest warrant, but that it was lifted in November 2023, which they believe proves the prosecution is baseless.

His party, Les Transformateurs, denounces the conditions of his detention as "inhumane and contrary to international law," 237online reports, while his lawyers and several Chadian civil society organizations speak of "political and judicial harassment" and are calling for his release, Deutsche Welle reports . Last week, the Attorney General rejected a new request for his release.

"His hunger strike could well become a new symbol of resistance for a section of the population, as civil society and NGOs begin to express their concerns about the evolving political situation in Chad," writes the Guinean website Le Djely .