Robert Gam, secretary general of Chad’s Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF), has been freed eight months after his disappearance, the party announced on Wednesday. According to PSF, Gam was dropped off at his home late Tuesday night by a vehicle linked to Chadian intelligence services.
Gam’s detention followed a period of threats and intimidation, occurring a few months after the death of the movement’s leader, Yaya Dillo Djerou. Djerou, a cousin of President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno and a political rival, was killed in February 2024 during a presidential guard raid on his party’s headquarters, shortly before the presidential elections.
Mahamat Ousmane Adam, a PSF national advisor, welcomed Gam’s release but said the party was still unclear about the terms surrounding it. The party highlighted that Gam had been held for nearly eight months without trial.
Last December, 23 associates of Djerou were released following their arrest after his death. The citizen platform Wakit Tamma condemned Gam’s detention as “unjust and politically motivated,” aimed at silencing dissent amid Chad’s increasingly harsh political repression.
International human rights organisations have criticised Chad’s violent crackdown on opposition groups. Another prominent figure, former prime minister Succes Masra, was detained last month on charges of “incitement to hatred,” accused by authorities of provoking deadly violence in the southwest town of Mandakao, where 42 people—mostly women and children—were killed on May 14.
Masra’s French legal team is seeking dismissal of the charges, but Chad’s Ministry of Communication has rejected foreign legal interference, stating that attempts to influence the justice system under “false pretences” would no longer be tolerated.
