U.S. diplomats organized a plan to help smuggle Chad’s pro-democracy opposition leader out of the country as security forces from Chad’s transitional president hunted him down in a wave of deadly crackdowns against protesters in October.
The plan, dubbed “Operation Moses” by some officials, entailed ferrying Succès Masra to the border of neighboring Cameroon using the U.S. ambassador to Chad’s own embassy vehicles, according to accounts from Masra and other current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter. But after staying in hiding for over a week—avoiding the security forces of transitional President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno—Masra successfully escaped the country before “Operation Moses” could be implemented.
The account of the proposed escape plan reveals a sharp split-screen in U.S.-Africa policy. As U.S. officials in Chad were scrambling to find a way to help Masra escape and witnessing some pro-democracy protesters be slaughtered at the gates of the U.S. Embassy, other officials in Washington were preparing an invitation to fete the very man who orchestrated this bloody crackdown at a major summit in Washington.
