Chad

The Republic of Chad is a landlocked Central African country of about 21.6 million people, based on 2026 UN-derived demographic estimates, with its capital and primary media centre in N’Djamena. Chad’s official languages are French and Arabic, alongside a multiplicity of local Chadian languages spoken across more than 200 ethnic and linguistic groups; the currency is the Central African CFA franc (XAF), issued in the BEAC zone. Chad gained independence from France on 11 August 1960.

The political system is dominated by President Maréchal Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, who took power at the head of a Transitional Military Council after the death of his father, President Idriss Déby Itno, on 20 April 2021. Following a three-year transition and a December 2023 constitutional referendum, he won the disputed 6 May 2024 presidential election with about 61% of the vote, ahead of former Prime Minister Succès Masra (about 18.5%) and former Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padacké (about 16.9%); the Constitutional Council confirmed the result on 16 May 2024 and the new President was sworn in on 23 May 2024. The Conseil National de Transition subsequently elevated him to the rank of Marshal of Chad in December 2024. The December 2024 legislative elections delivered the ruling Mouvement Patriotique du Salut (MPS) an absolute majority of 124 seats out of 188, with much of the opposition boycotting the polls. In 2025, Parliament approved constitutional amendments extending the presidential term from five to seven years and removing term limits; the amended constitution was promulgated on 8 October 2025.

Chad’s state-media architecture is consolidated under the Ministry of Communication, led by Minister and government spokesperson Gassim Chérif Mahamat. The country’s two main state-aligned outlets, the Office National des Médias Audiovisuels (ONAMA) and the Agence Tchadienne de Presse et d’Édition (ATPE), are both classified as State-Controlled.

ONAMA was created in late 2018 to replace the previous ONRTV and groups Radio Tchad (RNT, with origins in the 1950s colonial-era radio service), Télé Tchad (TVT), regional stations, and audiovisual production and distribution units under a single institutional umbrella. ONAMA is led by Director General Boukar Sanda, appointed by decree in October 2022 and still identified by ONAMA as DG in 2026.

ATPE traces its origins to the Agence Tchadienne de Presse created by Ordonnance No. 31/PR/INFO of 15 July 1966, and has been led since 29 April 2025 by Director General Hissein Bosquet Khamis Togoï, who succeeded Hadjé Bintou Khachallah and publicly acknowledged the agency’s financial difficulties and need for modernisation.

The country’s media regulator is the Haute Autorité des Médias et de l’Audiovisuel (HAMA), created by Ordonnance n° 016/PR/2018 of 31 May 2018, which replaced the previous Haut Conseil de la Communication; HAMA has been led since 29 May 2025 by Halimé Assadya Ali Brahim (Decree No. 1056/PR/2025), replacing Abderaman Barka Abdoulaye Doningar, who had drawn criticism from media professional associations for restrictive enforcement measures. In December 2024, the Chadian Supreme Court ordered the suspension of an HAMA decision that had prohibited online media from broadcasting audio and video content, after protests by online-media associations.

The wider Chadian press-freedom environment has been marked by significant violence and political repression. On 28 February 2024, opposition leader Yaya Dillo Djérou, a cousin of President Mahamat Idriss Déby and his most prominent rival, was killed during a state-security assault on his Parti Socialiste sans Frontières headquarters in N’Djamena, shortly after the announcement of the presidential election date.

On 1 March 2024, journalist Idriss Yaya of Radio Communautaire Mongo was killed at his home along with his wife and four-year-old son; RSF and CIVICUS have framed the murder as part of a pattern of journalist killings and stalled investigations in Chad between 2022 and 2024.

Former Prime Minister and Les Transformateurs opposition leader Succès Masra, who placed second in the May 2024 presidential election, was arrested in May 2025 and, on 9 August 2025, sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment and a one-billion CFA franc fine in a trial widely denounced by human-rights organisations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Chad’s defence accord with France was ruptured on 28 November 2024, with French military withdrawal beginning on 10 December 2024; a partial relaunch of Franco-Chadian relations was initiated through a Macron–Déby meeting at the Élysée Palace on 29 January 2026, with both presidents affirming the ambition of a “revitalised partnership” prioritising economic cooperation over the security dimension. In parallel, President Mahamat Idriss Déby’s January 2024 visit to Moscow signalled the country’s openness to alternative external partnerships within the broader Sahel regional context of shifting Western and Russian influence.

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