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“Reaction to the death of Chad President Idriss Deby: David Zounmenou” - https://youtu.be/0StjH_oxh-Q
“Chad's President Idriss Deby has died. He was 68. A Chad army spokesperson says Deby died while visiting troops on the frontline of a fight against northern rebels. For more on that, we are joined by political analyst Dr. David Zounmenou.”
“Veteran Chad President Idriss Deby died after fighting rebels on battlefield, says army”
N'Djamena, Chad - Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno died on Tuesday from wounds sustained in battle after three decades in power, the army announced.
The shock news came only the day after the 68-year-old career military man was proclaimed the winner of a presidential election that had given him a sixth term in office.
The army also announced a curfew and border closures after the death, as well as the dissolution of government and the parliament
Deby had ruled Chad with an iron fist since taking power on the back of a coup in 1990 but was a key ally in the West's anti-jihadist campaign in the troubled Sahel region.
The army said Deby had been commanding his forces at the weekend as they battled rebels who had launched a major incursion into the north of the country on election day, April 11.
Deby "has just breathed his last breath defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield," army spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouna said in a statement read out on state television.
The army said a military council led by the late president's 37-year-old son Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, a four-star general, would replace him.
The council has already met to draw up a transitional charter, Agouna said, without elaborating.
The government had sought Monday to assure concerned residents that the offensive was over.
Panic had been triggered in some areas of the capital N'Djamena on Monday after tanks were seen out on the city's main roads, an AFP journalist reported.
The tanks were later withdrawn apart from a perimeter around the president's office, which is under heavy security during normal times.
"The establishment of a security deployment in certain areas of the capital seems to have been misunderstood," government spokesman Cherif Mahamat Zene had said on Twitter.
"There is no particular threat to fear."
However, the US embassy in N'Djamena had on Saturday ordered non-essential personnel to leave the country, warning of possible violence in N'Djamena.
Britain also urged its nationals to leave, although France said in an advisory that there was no specific threat to the capital.
FACT, a group mainly made up of the Saharan Goran people, said Sunday that it had "liberated" the Kanem region. Such claims in remote desert combat zones are difficult to verify.
The group has a non-aggression pact with Khalifa Haftar, a military strongman who controls much of Libya's east.
The Tibesti mountains near the Libyan frontier frequently see fighting between rebels and the army, as well as in the northeast bordering Sudan.
French air strikes were needed to stop an incursion there in February 2019.
In February 2008, a rebel assault reached the gates of the presidential palace before being pushed back with French backing.
More:
https://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/veteran-chad-president-idriss-deby-died-after-fighting-rebels-on-battlefield-says-army-a1ab2b59-04d2-44e5-afd4-16a281359262