Hissène Habré

Hissène Habré was born in Faya-Largeau in northern Chad and studied political science and law at Sciences Po in Paris. Returning to Chad, he led the Armed Forces of the North (FAN) rebel movement, gaining international notoriety in 1974 by taking French archaeologist Françoise Claustre hostage for three years. In June 1982, Habré overthrew Goukouni Oueddei to seize the presidency in N'Djamena.

With military backing from France and the United States, Habré fought the Toyota War against Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan forces in 1987, successfully repelling Libyan troops from the Aouzou Strip. Domestically, his political police force, the DDS, committed horrific atrocities, executing an estimated 40,000 political opponents. Overthrown by Idriss Déby in 1990, Habré fled to Senegal. In May 2016, following a historic campaign by victims, the Extraordinary African Chambers in Dakar convicted him of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and torture, sentencing him to life imprisonment.