Chad's President Idriss Déby dies after 'clashes with rebels'
Idriss Déby, who ruled with an control for 3 decades and had just secured his sixth term in office, was considered by the West a linchpin within the fight against Islamist extremism in Central African Republic .
The announcement came each day after provisional election results projected he would win a sixth term in office.
The government and parliament are dissolved. A curfew has also been imposed and therefore the borders are shut.
Mr Déby, 68, spent three decades in power and was one among Africa's longest-serving leaders.
An army officer by training, he came to power in 1990 through an armed uprising. He was a long-time ally of France and other Western powers within the battle against jihadist groups within the Sahel region of Africa.
Mr Déby "breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield", a military general said on state TV on Tuesday.
He had gone to the battlefront , several hundred kilometres north of the capital N'Djamena, at the weekend to go to troops battling rebels belonging to a gaggle calling itself Fact (the Front for Change and Concord in Chad).
A military council led by Mr Déby's son, a 37-year-old four star general, will govern for subsequent 18 months.
Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno will lead the council but "free and democratic" elections are going to be held once the transition period is over, the military said in its statement.
Ahead of the election on 11 April, Mr Déby campaigned on a platform of bringing peace and security to the region.
But there has been growing unhappiness over his government's management of Chad's oil resources.
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Chad facing an uncertain future
Mr Déby has been an enormous figure both in Chad and therefore the wider region.
Under his command, the country sent forces to help Nigeria within the campaign against Boko Haram. it's been a serious player within the G5 Sahel, with troops deployed in Mali and Niger. Chad also holds an enormous influence over events across its southern border within the Central African Republic.
Internally, the govt still appears to be in command and can seemingly be headed by Mr Déby's son.
But the long run outlook is uncertain. Mr Déby had just been re-elected during a contest that opponents felt was faraway from democratic. With this in mind, it's not clear whether his successor are going to be ready to sustain an authoritarian system.
It is reported that Mr Déby was wounded fighting rebels within the Kanem region, just north of the capital N'Djaména. The previous bout of rebel activity had been much further north, within the Sahara and almost the border with Libya. this means instability has moved much further south.
There also are deep underlying political, societal and development pressures in Chad that were contained by Mr Déby's forceful rule but never resolved.
Much will depend upon whether his son's military regime will seek to develop dialogue and consensus about the way forward or attempt to sustain the sort of constitutional strongman regime that Mr Déby built.
Mr. Déby was re-elected largely on the promise of restoring peace and security to a rustic gripped by years of violence instigated by insurgent groups. Tensions rose within the days before the newest elections, but officials had urged calm.
On Monday, security forces and armored vehicles were posted to Ndjamena’s streets, prompting residents of the capital to refill their tanks with gas, devour their children early from school and hunker down reception . Chad’s communications minister had involved calm and wrote on Twitter on Monday that the presence of the safety personnel had been “misinterpreted.”
The minister, Chérif Mahamat Zene, added, “There is not any special threat to be scared of .”
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