Chad Jails over 400 rebels after ruler’s death

More than 400 rebels in Chad were handed life sentences on Tuesday following the death of former ruler Idriss Deby Itno, who was killed in 2021, a public prosecutor said.

After a mass trial, they were sentenced for “acts of terrorism, mercenarism, recruitment of child soldiers and assaulting the head of state,” said Mahamat El-Hadj Abba Nana, prosecutor for the capital N’Djamena.

He did not give a detailed figure for those jailed, saying only that “more than 400 were sentenced” to life, while 24 other defendants were acquitted.

Africanews reports that the trial opened last month.

In early 2021, the country’s main rebel group, the Front for Change and Concord in Chad, launched an offensive on the north of the country from bases in Libya.

On April 20, the army announced that Marshal Deby, Chad’s iron-fisted ruler for the previous three decades, had died from wounds sustained in the fighting.

Deby died just after being declared winner of a presidential election that gave him his sixth term.