Idriss Déby, the military pilot who ruled Chad for over 30 years and died on the front lines

News from Chad, this landlocked country located in the heart of Africa, are often linked to conflicts, wars, poverty and limitations of all kinds. The latest news in this scary news channel is the death in combat of its president: the general and the dictator Idriss Deby.

Was?

Two months after his 69th birthday, Déby was military and president of Chad from 1990 until Tuesday.

He died in action in northern Chad, while commanding troops fighting the rebel group Front for Alternative and Concord of Chad (FACT for its acronym in French).

The day before, Monday April 19, his victory was confirmed in the elections held on April 11 in his country, which allowed him to start his sixth consecutive term at the head of the presidency of Chad.

Fighter pilot

Déby, of Sunni religion (the majority Muslim group in the global Islamic community), began his military career at the officers’ school in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, then went to France where he obtained his graduated in 1976, at the age of 24, as a fighter pilot.

Even during the civil war of the early 1990s, Déby served as a general where he clashed with the troops of former President Hissène Habré, whom he would eventually replace as president after Déby’s troops occupied the capital. Chadiana on December 2, 1990, seizure of power.

Beginnings in politics

After having convened national conferences with different political parties, different organizations and rebel groups to rebuild democracy in Chad (Hissène Habré’s mandate had been characterized by all kinds of human rights violations, mass murders, concentration camps, torture, disappearances and even sexual slavery), Déby created the High Transitional Council, headed by him, with the aim of ruling the country until hold elections.

Finally, for 1996, he was elected president in democratic elections by majority vote, then re-elected until April 11 of that year, when he was appointed president for the sixth time in a row.

Diplomatic clashes and scandals with your son

Idriss Déby’s story at the head of power has not been without conflicts and scandals. In 2007, he went through one of the most complicated times in his government.

That year there was the kidnapping of 103 children in the town of Abéché by French members of the NGO “Arca de Zoé” and provoked an intense diplomatic conflict between the government of Chad and that of Spain and France. Although the truth of the matter has not been fully elucidated, the international conflict attempted to be resolved diplomatically within weeks.

But what Deby could not “clean” so easily was the murderer in a Parisian car park owned by his own son, Brahim Déby, 27 years old.

The personality of his son and his constant problems with the law created a stain in the family environment of the Debys which increased even more after Brahim’s death.

Arrested in June 2006 in Paris in front of a nightclub for having participated in a fight where he dropped a semi-automatic pistol without a license, then his apartment was searched and the French police were found drugs and weapons. Brahim was sentenced to six months in prison.

He was even said to be addicted to prostitution and drugs and used to humiliate his father’s government ministers and I walked in and out pulling with guns from nightclubs he frequented.

Brahim became a problem for his father who fired him as a consultant.

One country, three regions

Chad is a virtually desert landlocked country in Central Africa, bordering Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic, Nigeria and Cameroon.

It is geographically divided into three major regions: the northern desert area, the arid belt of the Sahel (the biogeographic part of the transition between the Sahara desert and the Sudanese savannah) in the center, and the more fertile Sudanese savannah, in the south of the country.

Lake Chad, from which the country takes its name, is the largest aquatic region it has and the second largest lake in Africa.

Currently, according to official data, just over 16 million people live in Chad. And only 2% of its territory has water.

With more than 200 ethnicities, French and Arabic as official languages ​​and Christianity and Islam as the main religions, Chad obtained its independence in 1960 (like many African countries) of France.

From there he was plunged into bloody and persistent civil wars, where rebels conquered his capital, N’Djamena, on several occasions, seizing power. Even Idriss Déby defeated his successor Hissène Habré in 1990, becoming President of Chad after defeating him.

The poverty and lack of resources these are the factors that affect this country the most. Their illiteracy is also high, at almost 25%, although the figures presented by UNESCO are not completely up to date.

Recently, the conflict crisis in Darfur engendered by racial issues in western Sudan has crossed the borders of the latter country and destabilized Chad, which suffers from hundreds of thousands of refugees living in camps east of its country. territory.

Historically, Chad was characterized by cotton industry, but for more than a decade, mainly since 2009, it has made oil one of its main sources of income and exports.

Clarín editorial staff

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