Chad’s former President Hissene Habre, an ally of the West during the Cold War, who was later jailed for war crimes and crimes against humanity, is dead.
Spokesperson for the Senegalese Justice Ministry disclosed this on Tuesday, saying he died in the country. He was aged 79.
Habre fled to Senegal after being ousted in a 1990 coup.
In 2016, he was sentenced to life in prison for rape and ordering the killing and torture of thousands of political opponents during his eight-year rule.
The Chadian consulate, while announcing the death, said he had died of COVID-19 complications.
Habré, who ruled Chad from 1982 to 1990, was a dictator under whose reign tens of thousands of people were executed, tortured or jailed.
Sentenced to life after a landmark trial, Habré spent his final years as a prisoner in Senegal, where he died in a hospital.
In May 2016, Habré was handed a life term for war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture by the Extraordinary African Chambers, a tribunal created by Senegal and the African Union (AU).
The trial set a global precedent, establishing the first time that a country prosecuted a former leader of another nation for rights abuses. The sentence was upheld in 2017.
The court ordered him to pay compensation to each victim who suffered rape, arbitrary detention and imprisonment during his rule, as well as to their relatives.
The son of a farmer, Habré was born in Faya-Largeau, northern Chad, and grew up among nomads in the Djourab desert.
His intelligence landed him a job as a local official before he left for Paris in 1963 to study law and attended Sciences-Po, the prestigious political science school.
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“We had some really good, quality time there,” Jeff Bezos said of traveling outside of Earth with his brother Mark. Hissene Habre, Chad’s former President convicted of war crimes, dies of COVID-19 complications Hissene Habre, Chad’s former President convicted of war crimes, dies of COVID-19 complications Hissene Habre, Chad’s former President convicted of war crimes, dies of COVID-19 complications Hissene Habre, Chad’s former President convicted of war crimes, dies of COVID-19 complications
