<p>Former Chadian president Hissene Habre, who was serving a life term in Senegal for war crimes and crimes against humanity, has died, Senegalese Justice Minister Malick Sall said Tuesday. He was 79.</p>.<p>"Habre is in his Lord's hands," Sall told the television channel TFM.</p>.<p>Local media said he had died of Covid-19.</p>.<p>Habre seized power in Chad in 1982, fleeing to Senegal in 1990 after he was in turn overthrown.</p>.<p>The former leader was jailed in Senegal's capital Dakar in 2016 after an African Union-backed trial over abuses committed during years of iron-fisted rule in Chad.</p>.<p>Some 40,000 people are estimated to have been killed under Habre's leadership of the semi-desert country.</p>.<p>Habre's supporters continued to lobby for his freedom while he was in prison in Dakar, however.</p>.<p>The ex-dictator was released on a two-month furlough last year, designed to protect him from the coronavirus.</p>.<p>Reed Brody, a lawyer who represented Habre's victims, said in a statement on Tuesday that there had been calls for the former leader to be vaccinated against the virus.</p>.<p>He nonetheless added that Habre will "go down in history as one of the world's most pitiless dictators, a man who slaughtered his own people to seize and maintain power".</p>
<p>Former Chadian president Hissene Habre, who was serving a life term in Senegal for war crimes and crimes against humanity, has died, Senegalese Justice Minister Malick Sall said Tuesday. He was 79.</p>.<p>"Habre is in his Lord's hands," Sall told the television channel TFM.</p>.<p>Local media said he had died of Covid-19.</p>.<p>Habre seized power in Chad in 1982, fleeing to Senegal in 1990 after he was in turn overthrown.</p>.<p>The former leader was jailed in Senegal's capital Dakar in 2016 after an African Union-backed trial over abuses committed during years of iron-fisted rule in Chad.</p>.<p>Some 40,000 people are estimated to have been killed under Habre's leadership of the semi-desert country.</p>.<p>Habre's supporters continued to lobby for his freedom while he was in prison in Dakar, however.</p>.<p>The ex-dictator was released on a two-month furlough last year, designed to protect him from the coronavirus.</p>.<p>Reed Brody, a lawyer who represented Habre's victims, said in a statement on Tuesday that there had been calls for the former leader to be vaccinated against the virus.</p>.<p>He nonetheless added that Habre will "go down in history as one of the world's most pitiless dictators, a man who slaughtered his own people to seize and maintain power".</p>