CHAD’S PRIME MINISTER ON HIS COUNTRY’S CIVILIAN TRANSITION AND ROLE IN AFRICA - The Atlantic Council is hosting an #ACFrontPage conversation featuring Succès Masra, prime minister of the Republic of Chad, on Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 10:15am ET. The prime minister will be in conversation with Rama Yade, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center.

The unexpected appointment of Masra as the prime minister of Chad in January 2024 provoked mixed reactions. Masra, the leader of the Transformers party, played a crucial role in organizing the October 2022 “Black Thursday” protests against the military government. He subsequently fled Chad after the violent crackdown that followed. However, with Masra having reached an agreement with Chad’s military leaders and elections scheduled for October this year, there is hope for the restoration of civilian rule to Chad. The question now arises: What role will the forty-year-old former chief economist of the African Development Bank Group play?

This transition is unfolding in the broader context of the French withdrawal across the Sahel, an area marked by a series of recent coups installing military juntas, and the ongoing civil war in neighboring Sudan. Chad remains one of the West’s key security partners in the region.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 02/28/2024