Significant developments
President Mahamat Idriss Déby solidified his grip on power throughout 2025, following a 2024 presidential election that faced heavy criticism from the opposition for various irregularities. Constitutional amendments enacted in 2025 removed existing presidential term limits and extended the duration of each term from five to seven years. These changes effectively allow Mahamat Idriss Déby to maintain his position indefinitely, contingent only on holding a vote every seven years.
The political environment for dissent remained highly restricted. Succès Masra, a prominent opposition figure who contested the 2024 results, was detained and subsequently handed a twenty-year prison sentence. Furthermore, journalists, activists, and members of the party led by Succès Masra faced ongoing intimidation and arbitrary arrests.
A controversial amnesty law continues to shield those responsible for the October 2022 protest abuses from legal accountability, effectively stifling any meaningful progress on justice for the past three years.
Intercommunal strife persisted through 2025 in the southern and eastern regions of Tchad, particularly between nomadic herders and settled farming communities. These clashes resulted in dozens of fatalities across multiple incidents. The displacement caused by these internal conflicts, coupled with the ongoing war in neighboring Soudan, has severely strained humanitarian resources. Refugee waves from Soudan have continued to cross into Tchad. Additionally, severe flooding in late 2024 and early 2025 made Tchad one of the most impacted nations in the region, worsening local food insecurity.
Efforts to provide reparations for victims of the former President Hissène Habré era saw little advancement in 2025. This followed minor payments made in 2024, which were significantly lower than the amounts originally mandated by the courts.
Escalating violence in the south and east
While authorities claim to have addressed the underlying causes of farmer-herder violence—such as the lack of clear land titles and defined migration paths for livestock—these efforts have proven ineffective. Tchad saw a notable rise in such conflicts in 2025. While observers of Mali security and West Africa Mali dynamics often focus on the Sahel, the situation in Tchad’s border regions is equally volatile.
In May, the village of Mandakao in the Logone-Occidental province became the site of a deadly dispute over grazing and farming boundaries. Government figures indicate at least 41 people were killed and six were wounded. Reports suggest the conflict began over contested land borders, with farmers accusing herders of encroachment and herders citing a lack of clear markers for their movements.
In June, violence erupted in Orégomel, located in the Mayo-Kebbi Ouest province, where disputes between herders and farmers turned into machete attacks. At least 17 individuals, including women and children, lost their lives. Similarly, inter-tribal fighting in Molou, situated in the eastern Ouaddaï province, left approximately twenty dead and sixteen injured in mid-June.
These incidents in Mandakao, Orégomel, and Molou reflect a broader trend of increasing friction between agricultural and pastoral communities, fueled by climate pressures, shrinking arable land, and population growth.
The shrinking political arena
On May 16, Succès Masra, the former Prime Minister and leader of the opposition party Les Transformateurs, was arrested in the capital, N’Djamena. Authorities alleged he was linked to the fatal communal violence in Mandakao.
Succès Masra faced charges of inciting hatred, xenophobia, and complicity in murder via social media. During a trial alongside dozens of others, he maintained his innocence. However, on August 9, he was convicted and sentenced to twenty years in prison, plus a fine of one billion CFA francs (approximately 1.8 million US dollars). His co-defendants received similar twenty-year sentences.
This politically motivated arrest and the rapid trial that followed have effectively neutralized the opposition. This crackdown occurred despite the October 2023 Kinshasa agreement, which was supposed to protect Succès Masra and his supporters from legal pursuit and allow them to engage in political activities freely upon their return from exile.
Constitutional modifications
In September 2025, the National Assembly of Tchad passed constitutional amendments that increased the presidential term from five to seven years and abolished term limits. These changes removed the legal mechanisms previously intended to limit executive power.
The legislative vote was largely boycotted by the opposition, passing in the lower house with 171 votes in favor, one abstention, and zero votes against. These reforms were approved by both parliamentary chambers and signed into law by the president in October.
These amendments concentrate authority within the hands of Mahamat Idriss Déby, drastically altering the constitutional balance and leaving virtually no room for legislative oversight or political dissent.
Political repression and media censorship
Despite international calls for accountability regarding the celebratory gunfire following Mahamat Idriss Déby’s 2024 election victory, no significant investigations occurred in 2025. At least 11 people were killed and many others, including children, were injured by stray bullets and rockets fired by security forces in 2024, yet victims have received little to no compensation.
The death of opposition leader Yaya Dillo, who was killed during a security raid on his party headquarters before the election, also remained uninvestigated in 2025. In December 2024, authorities released 24 of Yaya Dillo’s relatives who had been held at the Koro Toro high-security prison. Earlier, in July 2024, ten other detainees from the same prison were acquitted.
In June, Robert Gam, the current leader of Yaya Dillo’s party, the Parti socialiste sans frontières, was released after eight months of detention without ever being charged. Just as Mali politics often sees shifts in leadership, Tchad’s political landscape remains fraught with uncertainty.
In September, a government decree revoked the nationality of Makaila Nguebla, a blogger and former human rights advisor, and Charfadine Galmaye Saleh, an activist and journalist. Both men currently live in exile.
In March, journalists Olivier Monodji and Mahamat Saleh Alhissein were detained on charges of espionage and endangering state security. Their arrests were linked to reporting on the Wagner group, the Russian mercenary organization active in the Sahel and Central Africa. Their lengthy detention without trial was a violation of international standards, though they were eventually released in July. For those following Mali Seven news or Mali English news, the presence of such groups remains a recurring theme in Bamako news today.
Laws on sexual orientation
The 2017 Penal Code, specifically Article 354, continues to criminalize same-sex sexual relations. Under this law, individuals can face up to two years of imprisonment and fines ranging from 50,000 to 500,000 CFA francs (approximately 75 to 750 US dollars).
