The President of Chad has died after being serious …

True to the legend he had honed until his appointment as Marshal, Chadian President Idriss Deby died Tuesday after being seriously injured during a military operation against the rebels in the north of the country. Monday Deby was proclaimed the winner of the April 11 presidential elections. A military council headed by one of Deby’s sons, Mahamat Idriss, will rule the former French colony for the next 18 months. The army has promised “free and democratic” elections once the transition phase is over.

Deby, career soldier and head of the Patriotic Salvation Movement, He came to power in December 1990 after leading a rebellion against then-President Hissène Habré and had survived several revolts and attempted coups. FThe EU was a great ally of France in the fight against Islamic extremism in Africa, to the point that his country lent the French army to set up a base. He is also considered a key player on the African board of directors for his fight against jihadists in the Sahel, a transition zone between the Sahara desert to the north and the Sudanese savannah to the south.

“The President of the Republic, Head of State and of the Armed Forces, Idriss Deby Itno, has just expired to defend territorial integrity on the battlefield”the army spokesman said, Azem Bermandoa Agouna. “A military council headed by his son, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, has been set up,” General Agouna added, reading a statement broadcast on radio and television.

Agouna pointed out that once the transition is over, “new republican institutions will be put in place to organize free, democratic and transparent elections.” Military authorities dissolved constitution, government and parliament and declared 14-day national mourning, a curfew from 6 p.m. to 5 p.m. throughout the country and the closure of land and air borders.

“As he does whenever republican institutions are seriously threatened, he has taken the lead in heroic battles against the terrorist hordes coming from Libya.”said the general Agouna. Ministers and senior officials have reported that the head of state went on Saturday and Sunday to the battle front, where the army was facing the rebels, who launched an offensive from their rear in Libya on election day April 11.

Chadian army reported killing more than 300 rebels, involved in the incursion into the north of the country, and that five soldiers died in action. The government assured shortly after that the situation was under control. However, tanks were deployed on the main avenues of the capital N’Djaména on Monday morning, generating panic in some neighborhoods.

Military of humble origin

Deby prides himself on being a “warrior” of humble origins, the son of a cattle rancher. Born in 1952 in northern Chad when this desert country was still a French colony, after finishing high school he decided to opt for military training at the officers’ school in N’Djamena in 1976 he obtained a pilot’s license in France.

When returning to your country joins the Armed Forces of the North (FAN), led by former Chadian dictator Hisène Habré, who in 1982 came to power in a coup and transformed FAN into the National Armed Forces of Chad, of which Deby was appointed commander. That same year a war broke out with Libya on a border territory in dispute between the two countries.

In 1988 Deby was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and Military Advisor to the President, posts in which he played an important role in re-establishing diplomatic relations with Libya, ending the war in 1989. Habré sensed Deby’s success and popularity as a threat, which he tried to eliminate from the political scene by removing him from command of the armed forces. Deby then organized a plot to overthrow Habré., scheduled unsuccessfully on April 1, 1989.

After this failure Deby fled to Sudan, a country on the border with Chad, and founded the Patriotic Salvation Movement. He gathered in Sudan some three thousand opponents and dissidents of the ruling party and With the help of the arms of Libya, an uprising against the Habré government began on November 10, 1990.. In just three weeks Deby arrived in N’Djamena and the next day, after Habré’s flight, Parliament appointed him president of the country.

Since coming to power, Deby did not leave the presidential seat and became, until his death, the seventh non-monarchical ruler who was in power in the world for the longest time.. Firstly, established democratic and multiparty regime, organizing the first elections in June and July 1996, in which he won in the second round with 69.1% of the vote. Deby also won in 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016, embroiled in accusations of fraud by the opposition. His last electoral victory was confirmed on Monday, when he was declared the winner of the elections held on April 11 with an overwhelming 79.32% of the vote.