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Chad jails 400 rebels for life over assassination of president

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No fewer than 400 rebels in Chad were sentenced to life in jail on Tuesday following the death of former ruler Idriss Deby Itno, who was killed in 2021.

According to Mahamat El-Hadj Abba Nana, prosecutor for the capital N’Djamena, the rebels were sentenced for acts of terrorism, mercenarism, recruitment of child soldiers and assaulting the head of state after a mass trial.

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.

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

READ ALSO:Chad military council rules out negotiations with rebels

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 in office.

He was immediately succeeded by one of his sons, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who took the helm at the head of a 15-member military junta.

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