When President Idriss Déby took power in Chad in 1990, he promised to make a decisive break from the horrors of the previous eight years. Over a quarter of a century later, the conviction of former President Hissène Habré in 2016 for crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture may have gone some way to begin healing past wounds. However, full guarantees of individual and collective freedoms for all Chadians remain elusive and an apparatus of repression remains in place muzzling the voices of those who stand up and speak out to criticize the government or its policies.
