Ordonnance n° 007/PCMT/2022 du 31 août 2022 relative à la cybercriminalité et à la cyberdéfense en République du Tchad (Ordinance No. 007/PCMT/2022 of 31 August 2022 on cybercrime and cyberdefence), ratified by the National Transitional Council

Ordinance No. 007/PCMT/2022 of 31 August 2022 on cybercrime and cyberdefence is Chad's current principal cybercrime instrument. Issued as an ordinance by the President of the Transitional Military Council (PCMT), it was ratified by the Conseil National de Transition (CNT) on 5 December 2022 as part of a package of three texts: the ordinance on cybercrime and cyberdefence, a companion ordinance (No. 008/PCMT/2022 of 31 August 2022) on cybersecurity, and a text revising the law establishing the national cybersecurity and electronic-certification agency (ANSICE). Together these instruments update and build upon Chad's earlier framework under Law No. 009/PR/2015 on cybersecurity and combating cybercrime. The ordinance provides Chad's substantive criminal law for the digital environment. It criminalises offences against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer systems and data, including unauthorised access to and interference with information systems, and unlawful interception, together with computer-related fraud, data manipulation and content-related offences committed through electronic means. By covering cyberdefence as well as cybercrime, the ordinance also addresses threats to the State's information infrastructure and national security in cyberspace, complementing the cybersecurity measures set out in the companion ordinance No. 008/PCMT/2022. Institutionally, enforcement is supported by the Agence Nationale de Sécurité Informatique et de Certification Électronique (ANSICE), whose mandate, originally created under Ordinance No. 009/PCMT/2022 of 31 August 2022 and revised by the CNT, is to design and implement national policy to prevent and combat cybercrime, secure information systems and provide electronic certification. Investigation and prosecution proceed through Chad's ordinary criminal-justice institutions, supported by ANSICE. The ordinance operates alongside Chad's personal data protection regime (Law No. 007/PR/2015) and the wider 2015 digital-law package. As a recently adopted, transition-era instrument, several implementation details, including the consolidated published text and exact penalty scales, should be verified against the official gazette by a reviewer. The instrument nonetheless represents Chad's operative legal basis for prosecuting cybercrime and organising cyberdefence.

1. 1Current cybercrime statute: Ordinance No. 007/PCMT/2022 (31 August 2022), ratified by the CNT on 5 December 2022, updating the framework under Law No. 009/PR/2015
2. 2Adopted with companion Ordinance No. 008/PCMT/2022 on cybersecurity and a revision of the ANSICE-establishing law
3. 3Criminalises offences against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of systems and data (unauthorised access, system/data interference, unlawful interception)
4. 4Addresses computer-related fraud, data manipulation and content-related offences committed by electronic means
5. 5Covers cyberdefence and protection of State information infrastructure alongside ordinary cybercrime
6. 6ANSICE designated as the national agency to prevent and combat cybercrime, secure information systems and provide electronic certification