Chad jails more than 400 rebels for life over president’s assassination
Chad has sentenced more than 400 rebels to life imprisonment following the 2021 killing of former leader Idriss Deby, a prosecutor has said.
After a collective trial, they were sentenced for “acts of terrorism, mercenary activity, recruitment of child soldiers and assaults against the head of state”, said Mahamat El-Hadj Abba Nana, prosecutor of the capital N’Djamena.
Nana said “more than 400 were sentenced” to life, while 24 other defendants were acquitted.
In early 2021, the country’s main rebel group, the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), launched an offensive on the north of the country from bases in Libya.
On April 20, 2021, the army announced that Marshal Déby, Chad’s iron-fisted leader for the previous three decades, had died from injuries sustained in the fighting.
Déby died just after being declared the winner of a presidential election that earned him his sixth term.
He was immediately replaced by one of his sons, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who took the reins at the head of a 15-member military junta.
