In Chad, after years of waiting for many in total poverty, between 70 and 80% of the nearly 10,700 victims of Hissène Habré have already, according to a platform that brings together three associations of victims of his presidency between 1982 and 1990, been compensated since mid-February by the Chadian government, which has paid out a sum of 10 billion CFA francs. Each victim or beneficiary has therefore received compensation of some 920,000 CFA francs, approximately 1,400 euros.
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We are far, very far, from the 150 billion CFA francs that the criminal court of Ndjamena in 2015 and the special African court of Dakar in 2017 had awarded in total to the victims of Hissène Habréas compensation for the damage suffered.
The 10 billion made available by the Chadian government today therefore only represents a little more than 10% of the compensation set in the two legal proceedings, but it is a very important gesture that has been awaited for a very long time by these victims.
“ Hissène Habré’s victims fought tirelessly for 25 years to bring the dictator and his henchmen to justicerecalls Reed Brody was one of the main initiators of the Habré trial. This money is just a small fraction of what the courts were able to award them. But for the victims who have waited so long and are in desperate straits, this payment is already making a huge difference in their lives. »
This sum has brought some relief to the victims. Now, we are trying to get a second operation. That is our concern, because yesterday, they had no hope. They were desperate and this operation has given them hope.
Pierre Dam Adoumbaye (Association of Victims of Crimes of the Hissène Habré Regime)
The Chadian government must make an additional effort, because these 10 billion represent, still according to Reed Brody, only a fifth of the sum that the Chadian state will have to pay for the compensation of Habré’s victims. The rest of the 150 billion? The special tribunal in Dakar had instructed the African Union (AU) to create a trust fund that would mobilize these funds. But this has not yet been done, eight years after this trial.
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