Former Chadian president Hissene Habre, who was serving a life time period in Senegal for crimes in opposition to humanity, died from Covid-19 on Tuesday aged 79.
Chad’s consulate instructed AFP that the previous dictator had succumbed to coronavirus in Dakar’s fundamental hospital, the place he had been rushed from a personal clinic after his situation worsened.
“Habre is in his Lord’s palms,” Senegal’s Justice Minister Malick Sall stated on the tv channel TFM, saying Habre’s demise.
The top of Chad’s ruling navy junta, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, additionally provided his “honest condolences” to Habre’s household “and the Chadian folks.”
“To God we belong and to Him we return,” Deby stated on Twitter.
Habre seized energy in 1982, ruling with an iron fist till he fled to Senegal in 1990 after being ousted by Deby’s father, Idriss Deby Itno, who died combating rebels earlier this yr.
Habre’s rule was marked by brutal crackdowns on dissent, together with alleged torture and executions of opponents.
Some 40,000 persons are estimated to have been killed, incomes Habre the nickname of “Africa’s Pinochet.”
In exile within the Senegalese capital Dakar, the previous chief lived a quiet life in an upmarket suburb along with his spouse and kids.
However he was finally arrested in 2013 and tried by a particular tribunal arrange by the African Union (AU) below a cope with Senegal.
The trial created authorized and political precedent, marking the primary time {that a} nation prosecuted a former chief of one other nation for rights abuses.
In Might 2016, Habre was handed a life time period for battle crimes, crimes in opposition to humanity and torture. The sentence was upheld the next yr.
As Habre started serving his sentence within the Cap Manuel penitentiary in Dakar, his supporters voiced concern for his well being and pushed for extra lenient situations given his superior age.
Final yr, a Senegalese decide granted him a two-month furlough designed to defend him from coronavirus.
Teams representing Habre’s victims recognised his proper to be handled humanely, however fiercely resisted preferential remedy for the previous dictator.
– ‘Pitiless’ -Reed Brody, a lawyer who represented Habre’s victims, was withering about Habre’s legacy on Tuesday, saying in a press release that he would “go down in historical past as one of many world’s most pitiless dictators.”
Habre “slaughtered his personal folks to grab and keep energy… burned down total villages, despatched girls to function sexual slaves for his troops and constructed clandestine dungeons to inflict torture on his enemies,” Brody stated.
The ex-dictator’s nephew Kelley Chidi Djorkodei, who was on the hospital in Dakar, instructed AFP that he blamed the Senegalese authorities for Habre’s demise.
“The Senegalese state might have averted this, simply by releasing him,” he stated.
However justice minister Sall rejected the criticism.
Habre had been in poor health and had been transferred to a “top-of-the-line non-public clinic” in Dakar at his household’s request, he stated.
“It was on this clinic that he caught Covid,” the minister stated, including that President Macky Sall then requested for Habre to be transferred to Dakar’s fundamental hospital, which was the place he died.
“We must always all be happy with the way in which we welcomed Habre,” he stated.
Sall added that the jail authorities had been getting ready to suit an digital bracelet on Habre, suggesting he might have served his sentence in his residence in Dakar.
Individually, the Senegalese jail authorities stated that not a single case of Covid had been recorded in any of the nation’s jails for the reason that begin of the pandemic, and exams carried out Monday at personnel at Cape Manuel have been all damaging.
– No compensation -Habre’s conviction was seen as a turning level for pursuing rights abusers in Africa, the place the Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC), positioned in The Hague, was turning into more and more unpopular.
The previous dictator was ordered to pay as much as 30,000 euros ($33,000) to every sufferer who suffered rape, arbitrary detention and imprisonment throughout his rule, in addition to to their relations.
Victims’ teams say they haven’t been paid, nonetheless, they usually suspect that Habre has left behind a substantial fortune.
Jacqueline Moudeina, one other lawyer representing Habre victims, instructed AFP that “this demise doesn’t absolve Chad or the African Union from compensating the victims”.
Abdourahmane Gueye, a Senegalese Habre sufferer who as soon as offered jewelry in Chad, stated: “We now have no grudge in opposition to him”.
“We simply want have to put strain on the African Union in order that the victims are compensated,” he added.
The situation and timing of Habre’s funeral stay unknown.
Chadian authorities spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah instructed AFP “we’re not against the physique being repatriated to Chad,” however burdened that no official commemoration can be held, “out of respect for the victims”.
Regardless of his bloody fame, some in Chad proceed to view Habre in a constructive gentle, as a stern-willed patriot who sought to strengthen his younger state.
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