Chad opposition leader and former Prime Minister Succes Masra, in custody for more than a month, said on Tuesday in a letter to supporters that he was going on hunger strike.
"Starting this evening, in solidarity with all of you and in protest at undeserved injustices, I shall begin a hunger strike," read the letter made public by members of Masra's party, the Transformers.
"I have been here for 40 days, still searching, no doubt like you, for the reason for my presence in this place," wrote Masra, who stood unsuccessfully in last year's presidential election.
Arrested on May 16, he faces prosecution for "inciting hatred, revolt, forming and complicity with armed gangs, complicity in murder, arson, and desecration of graves."
'Arbitrary detention'
On June 19, his lawyers submitted a request for his provisional release, which judicial authorities rejected.
Francis Kadjilembaye, coordinator of Masra's legal team, told AFP the group of lawyers regard Masra as in "arbitrary detention."
One of his French lawyers, Paris-based Vincent Brengarth, told AFP that "It is urgent that this detention ends along with this unjustified procedure."
On May 14, forty-two people, reportedly mostly women and children, were killed in Mandakao, in the Logone Occidental region (southwestern Chad), according to Chadian justice, with Masra accused of provoking the massacre.
International arrest warrant
The judiciary has highlighted a 2023 audio message to incriminate Masra, which, according to a French translation of the original in the Ngambaye language, says: "Let us teach each other how to use a firearm. Whether girl or boy, whether man or woman... let us all be protective shields."
Masra's lawyers claim that the statement, made "in a specific context, was the subject of an international arrest warrant" sent out against their client but they say that was "lifted on November 2, 2023, following a discontinuation of proceedings."
Masra, originally from Chad's south, hails from the Ngambaye ethnic group and enjoys wide popularity among the predominantly Christian and animist populations of the south who feel marginalised by the largely Muslim regime in the capital N'Djamena.
