Key developments
The year 2025 marked a significant shift in Chad’s political landscape under President Mahamat Idriss Déby, who secured his hold on power following a controversial 2024 presidential election. Opposition figures and watchdogs widely criticized the vote for irregularities. In 2025, constitutional amendments were enacted, extending presidential terms from five to seven years and removing term limits entirely. This effectively allows Mahamat Idriss Déby to remain in office indefinitely, provided elections are held every seven years.
The political opposition faced severe restrictions. Succès Masra, a prominent opposition leader who contested the 2024 election, was arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Activists, party members, and journalists aligned with him were subjected to harassment, intimidation, and arrests.
A blanket amnesty law, shielding individuals involved in abuses during the October 2022 protests from prosecution, has stifled justice efforts for the past three years.
Intercommunal violence continued to plague southern and eastern Chad in 2025, particularly between nomadic Fulani herders and sedentary farming communities. These clashes resulted in dozens of deaths and displaced thousands. The strain on humanitarian aid was further exacerbated by the influx of refugees fleeing the conflict in neighboring Sudan and severe flooding at the end of 2024 and early 2025, which worsened food insecurity across the region.
Progress on reparations for victims of abuses during the rule of former President Hissène Habré remained stalled in 2025, despite partial payments made in 2024—amounts that fell far short of court-ordered reparations.
Escalating violence in southern and eastern Chad
Despite government claims of addressing root causes—such as unclear land titles and unregulated cattle migration routes—the frequency and intensity of violent clashes between herders and farmers surged in 2025.
In May, clashes erupted in Mandakao, a village in the Logone Occidental province, over disputed grazing and agricultural land boundaries. Official reports confirmed 41 deaths and six injuries. The conflict stemmed from contested land demarcations, with farmers alleging herders encroached on their fields, while herders argued the lack of clear boundaries forced them onto cultivated lands.
In June, violence broke out in Orégomel, Mayo-Kebbi Ouest, after disputes between herders and farmers escalated into machete attacks, resulting in at least 17 deaths—including women and children—and multiple injuries. Mid-June saw intercommunal strife in Molou, Ouaddaï province, leave around 20 dead and 16 injured. These incidents reflect a broader trend fueled by demographic pressure, shrinking arable land, and climate change.
Political landscape shifts
On May 16, Succès Masra, former Prime Minister and leader of the opposition party Les Transformateurs, was arrested in N’Djamena on charges linked to the deadly intercommunal violence in Mandakao. He faced accusations of inciting hatred, xenophobia, and—via social media—complicity in murder. His trial, alongside dozens of co-defendants, concluded with a guilty verdict on August 9. Succès Masra was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and fined 1 billion CFA francs (approximately $1.8 million). His co-accused received identical sentences for similar charges.
The politically motivated arrest and swift trial of Succès Masra effectively silenced dissent and neutralized opposition voices. His detention and conviction also violated the Kinshasa Agreement of October 2023, which had suspended an arrest warrant against him and guaranteed his safe return from exile, along with the right to resume political activities freely.
Constitutional reforms centralize power
In September 2025, the National Assembly approved constitutional amendments extending presidential terms to seven years and eliminating term limits, removing all constraints on presidential tenure. The vote, boycotted by most opposition members, passed in the lower house with 171 votes in favor, one abstention, and no opposition.
The reforms, later approved by both parliamentary chambers and signed into law by the President in October, consolidate power under Mahamat Idriss Déby, undermining legislative oversight and curtailing political debate.
State-sponsored repression and political violence
Calls for investigations into the 2024 post-election celebratory shootings, which killed at least 11 people and injured many others—including children—via stray bullets and rockets fired at homes, went unanswered in 2025. No perpetrators were held accountable, and victims received little to no compensation or recourse.
The death of opposition leader Yaya Dillo during a security forces raid on his party’s headquarters before the 2024 election remained uninvestigated in 2025. In December 2024, 24 of his relatives detained in the high-security Koro Toro prison were released, while 10 others had been acquitted in July 2024.
In June, Robert Gam, leader of Yaya Dillo‘s Parti socialiste sans frontières, was freed after eight months in detention without charge. In September, the Ministry of Territorial Administration revoked the citizenship of blogger and former presidential advisor Makaila Nguebla and activist-journalist Charfadine Galmaye Saleh, both now living in exile abroad.
In March, journalists Olivier Monodji and Mahamat Saleh Alhissein were arrested on espionage and state security charges, allegedly for links to the Wagner Group or reporting on the Russian mercenary group’s activities in Central Africa and the Sahel. Their prolonged detention without trial breached international standards on arbitrary detention and fair trial rights. They were released in July.
LGBTQ+ rights under threat
Chad‘s 2017 Penal Code, Article 354, criminalizes same-sex relations, imposing up to two years imprisonment and fines ranging from 50,000 to 500,000 CFA francs (approximately $75 to $750) on convicted individuals.
