President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno of Chad released 259 of the 262 protestors who were imprisoned last year after demonstrations that turned deadly as police and protesters clashed.
A presidential decree specified that “Persons convicted on December 2 2022 for unauthorised assembly, destruction of property, arson, violence and assault, assault and battery, and public order offences… benefit from a presidential pardon.”
The decision was made a few days after 380 rebels who had been given life sentences for the murder of the current president’s father, former leader Idriss Deby Itno, in 2021 were also pardoned.
The nation’s human rights commission (CNDH) reported 128 fatalities in the violent suppression of opposition demonstrations in Chad in October and denounced human rights violations last month.
Last October, opposition groups organised protests in the capital N’Djamena and other towns to coincide with the date on which the ruling military had originally pledged to cede power—a deadline that General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno has since extended by an additional two years.
He assumed control after the death in April 2021 of his father, president Idriss Deby Itno, who had governed for 30 years.
The number of fatalities in the capital, according to the Chadian authorities, was originally estimated to be around 50 before being revised to 73.