Chad’s former prime minister and opposition leader Succès Masra was taken into custody by security forces on May 16, in what his party called an “abduction.”
Public prosecutor Oumar Mahamat Kedelaye said Masra was arrested in connection with an intercommunal clash in Chad’s southwest province of Logone Occidental that killed 42 people.
Masra is accused of inciting hatred and violence through social media posts that called on the population to arm themselves against a community in the area, according to the prosecutor. It is unclear what specific posts the prosecutor was referring to.
Clashes between herders and farmers, who accuse the herders of grazing livestock on their land, are common in the Central African country.
Masra’s Transformers party said in a statement that their leader was “kidnapped” in his residence and expressed “deep concern over this brutal action carried out outside any known judicial procedures and in blatant violation of the civil and political rights guaranteed by the constitution.”
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