Chad's President Mahamat Idriss Deby (Mahamat Idriss facebook page)
Just two weeks after eight opposition leaders were arrested for planning a march against Chad’s governance problems, they were sentenced to eight years in prison without parole.
Their Political Actors Consultation Group (GCAP) had scheduled the demonstration for 2 May. A day before their sentencing on 8 May, the Supreme Court announced that the GCAP – the country’s main political opposition coalition – had been dissolved. The jailed leaders join key opposition figure Succès Masra, head of The Transformers party, who was imprisoned for 20 years in August 2025 for ‘incitement to hatred.’ This new turn of events adds another layer to the country’s gradual slide back to authoritarianism.
The silencing of the GCAP leaders leaves President Mahamat Idriss Déby’s ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement virtually unchallenged. Without a credible opposition, Chad’s democratic project is failing.
There has been a systematic ban on public demonstrations for over six years. Some marches have been brutally repressed, as happened in October 2022, when around 200 protesters were killed, and many others were wounded or arrested.
