“African Dictator Who Fled to a Neighbouring Country After Being Overthrown, Only to Die in Prison There”
In December 1990, Hissène Habré, Chad’s former president, fled the country after being overthrown by rebel forces. He later settled in Senegal, where he was eventually arrested, sentenced to life imprisonment and died in 2021.
Habré was Chad’s fifth president, serving from 1982 to 1990. Before becoming president, he was a rebel fighter and leader of the Armed Forces of the North (FAN) during Chad’s civil wars. In June 1982, he overthrew President Goukouni Oueddei and took power.
However, his eight-year rule was marked by torture, political killings and the persecution of people suspected of opposing his government. His feared secret police, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS), reported directly to him. It is estimated that about 40,000 people died under his regime.
However, by the late 1980s, Habré became increasingly suspicious of people he considered threats to his leadership. In 1989, he accused senior officials, including his former military commander Idriss Déby, Interior Minister Mahamat Itno and army chief Hassan Djamous, of plotting a coup. Itno and Djamous were arrested and killed, while Déby escaped to Sudan, where he formed a rebel group called the Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) and eventually organised a rebellion against Habré.
Backed by Libya and Sudan, Déby’s forces captured the capital, N’Djamena, in December 1990, forcing Habré to flee. He first escaped to Cameroon before settling in Senegal. Déby became president of Chad unopposed.
For more than two decades, he lived in Senegal in luxury while victims and human rights organisations pursued justice. In 2013, he was arrested in Dakar and later tried by the Extraordinary African Chambers, established by Senegal and the African Union.
On May 30, 2016, Habré was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture.
The court also ordered him to pay more than €120 million in reparations to victims and their families. The compensation was intended for survivors of sexual violence, torture and arbitrary detention, as well as relatives of victims who died, though the vast majority of these funds remain unpaid.
Unfortunately, he died at the age of 79 on August 24, 2021, at a hospital in Dakar after contracting C0V!D-19. Hissène Habré was buried in Dakar, Senegal, at Yoff Muslim Cemetery in a simple burial ceremony.