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The Chadian presidency has just instructed the Minister of Finance to contribute to the Trust Fund responsible for compensating the victims of the Hissène Habré years. The government has announced the payment of 10 billion CFA francs while waiting to know where the African Union is in setting up this Trust Fund.
Five years after the conviction of the late former dictator, the three associations are in despair to see the victims finally receive the promised compensation, even if they recognize that ” a few small steps that have been made over the past two years.
The African Union which oversees Trust Fund awarded him a sum of 5 million dollars. For its part, the Chadian government has made a building available to the secretariat of this Fund since last year, and it has been committed for ten days to supplying this basket with an initial contribution of 10 billion CFA francs. , some 15 million US dollars. But impossible for the moment to say whether or not this money has already been released.
Hawa Gamane, who heads one of the three associations of Hissène Habré’s victims, says she is satisfied with the decision of the Chadian government, ” an example for all other donors “, she says, recalling that” we are still a long way off “. A total of some 150 million dollars must be raised to compensate the victims of the Habré regime.
This is a highly responsible act on the part of the government.
Clément Abaïfouta, founder of the Hissene Habre Victims Association
” It’s a shame “
These three associations, which claim to have already recorded more than 1,600 deaths among these victims since the Habré trial, call on the African Union to act as quickly as possible, “ before it is too late ». « It’s a shame, the Board of Directors has been created since last year, but it has not held its first official meeting yet. “, lambasted Clément Abaïfouta. No official of the African organization wanted to react.
Hissène Habré, the former president who ruled the country from 1982 to 1990, and whose regime killed more than 40,000 people, had been sentenced in 2017 to life imprisonment for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He died in August 2021 in Dakar, at the age of 79.