Impunity for human rights violations has been a hallmark of the regime of Gen. Mahamat Idriss Déby, who seized power and declared himself head of the Transitional Military Council (Conseil Militaire de Transition, CMT) following the 2021 death of his father. Following a constitutional referendum, which helped solidify his rule, Déby in May won a presidential election marred by allegations of irregularities and violence.
To date, there has been no accountability for the October 20, 2022 violent crackdown on protesters in several cities across the country, that resulted in the killing of scores of people, and injury to many more. An amnesty law removed the possibility of prosecuting perpetrators of abuses related to the October protests. In addition, there was no accountability for the deaths in detention, torture, and inhumane treatment of protesters from October 20 held at Koro Toro, a maximum-security prison in the north.
End of Political Transition
Interim president Déby won a presidential election in May. Some international organizations, including the International Organization of la Francophonie (Organisation internationale de la Francophonie), attempted to observe the election, but lacked the capacity to comprehensively monitor the election across the entire country. The interim government denied national civil society organizations funded by the European Union the accreditation to monitor the election.
Déby’s main challenger, former prime minister Succès Masra, who officially won 18.53 percent, disputed the results and declared himself winner. He has since reported threats against himself and his supporters.
After the announcement of the provisional results of the presidential vote, security forces celebrated Déby’s victory by firing their weapons over cities and towns across the country, killing at least 11 and injuring hundreds. To date there has been no investigation into the security forces’ actions.
Political Violence
In February, members of the security forces killed Yaya Dillo, president of the Socialist Party Without Borders (Parti socialiste sans frontières, PSF), during an attack on the party’s headquarters in N’Djamena, the capital. Dillo was considered a leading political opponent of Déby and the two men were reported to be cousins from the same Zaghawa ethnic group. The government alleged that PSF members attacked an office of the national security agency, which responded by attacking the party headquarters on February 28. Dillo, according to the state prosecutor, was killed during an exchange of gunfire with security forces. Reuters, following an investigation, reported that Dillo was most likely killed with a bullet to the side of the head at close range.
Aftermath of the October 20, 2022 Protests
An amnesty law passed by a national transitional council in November 2023 removed the possibility of prosecuting security forces for their violent repression during the 2022 demonstrations, organized by civil society and opposition parties. The law denies victims the right to seek justice and reinforces impunity.
The outcome of an investigation into the violence by the Economic Community of Central African States was not published.
In August, Human Rights Watch released a report detailing how the military was responsible for the deaths in custody of several protesters en route to and at Koro Toro prison in October 2022. The prisoners were unlawfully detained, mistreated, and denied basic supplies during the two to three days transit from the capital city to the prison. The government denied the abuses documented in the report.
In February, prominent rights defender, Mahamat Nour Ahmat Ibédou, was removed from his post as president of the National Human Rights Commission (Commission nationale des droits de l'homme, CNDH). Under his tenure, the CNDH was the only government body which published in 2023 an independent report on the government’s actions during the 2022 protests and recommended that those responsible for violations be prosecuted. Ibédou came under pressure soon after the report’s publication.
Justice, Reparations for Hissène Habré’s Victims
Limited compensation was paid out to victims of former President Hissène Habré, who died of Covid-19 in August 2021 while serving a life sentence. Habré had been convicted of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and torture, including sexual violence and rape, by the Extraordinary African Chambers in the Senegalese court system on May 30, 2016.
In February, following a meeting between President Déby and three Chadian victims’ associations, the government began making payments of US$16.5 million (10 billion CFA francs) to 10,700 victims, including prison survivors and families of those who were killed under Habré, who will each receive 925,000 CFA ($1,529). This is less than 10 percent of what courts in Senegal and Chad had awarded. The victims’ associations welcomed the payments but insisted on their right to more complete compensation.
In October, police forcibly cancelled a conference in N’Djamena that was planned to discuss justice for the victims of Habré abuses. A former Human Rights Watch counsel, who was to be a keynote speaker at the conference, was briefly detained at the police intelligence office, the Directorate General for Intelligence and Investigation (Direction générale du renseignement et de l'investigation), and then expelled.
Intercommunal Violence in the South and East
Violent clashes, attributed to conflicts between herders and sedentary farmers, decreased slightly in 2024, based on reports from local non-governmental organizations, but nonetheless continued in the south and east.
In February, at least 42 people were killed in clashes between rival communities in the east. In March, at least 23 people from three villages in the Moyen-Chari province were killed over the course of six days. Over 100 homes were also set ablaze. The number of those who died in these clashes was likely underreported. A United Nations report from May highlighted scores of deaths that had yet to be documented in two departments in the Moyen-Chari province alone.
Displacement
Fighting in Sudan, which started in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, triggered massive displacement of people into Chad. As of September, over 650,000 Sudanese refugees had fled to Chad, joining an estimated 530,000 refugees and asylum seekers already in the country. This strained an already underfunded humanitarian response, especially as floods continued to ravage the country.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Article 354 of the 2017 Penal Code prohibits “sexual relations with a person of one’s own sex.” Under the code, individuals convicted of same-sex relations face up to 2 years’ imprisonment and a fine of between 50,000 to 500,000 CFA francs (approximately US$75-750).