A four-star general who is a son of Chad’s slain president Idriss Deby Itno will replace him at the head of a military council, the army announced on Tuesday.
“A military council has been set up headed by his son, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno,” the army’s spokesman, General Azem Bermandoa Agouna, said on state radio.
This was shortly after the announcement that the newly re-elected president had died of wounds while fighting rebels in the north of Chad.
Recall that Deby Itno has died on the battlefield after three decades in power, the army announced on state television.
The shock announcement on Tuesday came only the day after the 68-year-old was proclaimed the winner of a presidential election that had given him a sixth term in office.
Deby, 68, had ruled Chad with an iron fist for three decades but was a key ally in the West’s anti-jihadist campaign in the troubled Sahel region.
On Monday, the army had claimed a “great victory” in its battle against the rebels from neighbouring Libya, saying it had killed 300 fighters, with the loss of five soldiers in its own ranks during eight days of combat.
