Habré is a former U.S. ally who’s been described as Africa’s Pinochet. He served as president of Chad from 1982 to 1990 and oversaw widespread human rights abuses. The Chadian Truth Commission accused his government of systematic torture and being involved in as many as 40,000 deaths. Under President Ronald Reagan, the CIA helped Habré take power in 1982, and he remained a U.S. ally, even visiting Reagan in the White House.
Hissène Habré fled Chad in 1990 following a coup. He may have gotten away with his crimes, had it not been for a group of torture and rape survivors who joined with human rights activists and lawyers to spend decades bringing him to justice. The architects of the case were the victims themselves. This is Souleymane Guengueng speaking in a Human Rights Watch video that also features his testimony.
SOULEYMANE GUENGUENG: [translated] During two years and a half in prison, I saw my friends, my fellow inmates, die from hunger, die from despair, die from torture, and die from diseases. From the depths of my cell, I swore to God to fight for justice, if I got out alive.
AMY GOODMAN: Twenty-five years after Chadian dictator Hissène Habré was overthrown and fled to Senegal, he was convicted in 2016 by the Extraordinary African Chambers in the Senegalese court system and sentenced to life in prison. A judge read the verdict.
— source democracynow.org | Dec 26, 2022