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Chadian President Idriss Deby has for decades been a pillar of support for the West despite criticism of his radical rule and failure to reduce poverty.
The 68-year-old, whose party backed him on Saturday for a sixth term, has been in office since taking office 30 years ago, making him one of the world’s oldest leaders.
This longevity made him a pivotal figure in the vast and unstable region of the Sahel, where the images show him as comfortable on a chariot as on the back of a dromedary.
In August last year, he traded in his traditional robe for a dark blue silk cape embroidered with oak leaves, clutching the all-new Marshal’s staff – an image that confirmed the rise of a Shepherd’s son.
Deby was born in Berdoba, northeastern Chad, to a family of the Zaghawa ethnic group, a branch of the Gorane people who live on both sides of the border with Sudan.
Like many other ambitious young Africans, Deby first chose the life of a soldier, enrolling in the officers’ academy in the capital N’Djamena and later obtaining a pilot’s license in France.
He returned in 1979 to a country plagued by rival warlords.
Rise to power
Deby harnessed his star to Hissène Habré and was rewarded with the post of commander-in-chief of the army after Habré came to power in 1982, ousting Goukouni Weddeye.
In the following years, Deby distinguished himself by fighting against Libyan-backed rebels who were fighting in mountainous territory in the north of the country.
But in 1989, he fell out with his increasingly paranoid boss, who accused him of plotting a coup.
On the rise: Deby pictured in December 1990, just after taking power. By CHRISTOPHE SIMON (AFP) Deby fled to Sudan, where he assembled an armed rebel group, the Patriotic Salvation Movement, which moved to Ndjamena unopposed in December 1990.
In 1996, six years after taking power and establishing democracy, Deby was elected head of state in Chad’s first multi-party vote.
He won again in successive elections.
The main opposition withdrew its participation in 2006 and 2011, thwarted by a change in the constitution allowing the former soldier to renew his mandate, and the 2015 elections were marked by accusations of fraud.
The April 11 election looks set to usher in a sixth term for Deby, despite moves by the fragmented opposition to rally around a single champion.
A firm French ally
Deby has a firm ally in the former colonial power, France, which in 2008 and 2019 used military force to help defeat rebels who tried to oust him.
“We have saved an absolutely major ally in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel,” French Defense Minister Florence Parly told parliament in 2019.
Deby supported the French intervention in northern Mali in 2013 to push back the jihadists, and the following year intervened to end the chaos in the Central African Republic.
Allies: French President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands with Deby during a summit on the Sahel in Pau, southern France, in January 2020. By REGIS DUVIGNAU (POOL / AFP) In 2015, Deby launched a regional offensive in Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger against Boko Haram jihadists based in Nigeria, calling the Islamic State affiliate a “horde of madmen and drug addicts.”
One of Deby’s political rivals, Saleh Kebzabo, protested against France’s support and urged the world to recognize the regime’s “dictatorial nature”.
Deby’s power base, the military, comprises mainly troops from the president’s Zaghawa ethnic group and is commanded by loyalists.
It is considered one of the best in the Sahel. According to the International Crisis Group think tank, defense spending represents between 30 and 40% of the annual budget.
Charges of rights
Despite Western support, Deby has been accused of reigning the iron fist, appointing parents and boyfriends to key positions and failing to tackle the poverty that plagues many of Chad’s 13 million people despite the oil wealth.
The country ranks 187th out of 189 in the UN Human Development Index (HDI).
Banned opposition protests, arbitrary arrests and cut off access to social media regularly raise objections from human rights groups, who have also accused the ruling class of rampant corruption.
Pomp: Deby was appointed Marshal in ceremonies at the National Assembly last August. By Renaud MASBEYE BOYBEYE (AFP) “When he gets angry he is a little scary,” said a trade unionist, referring to Deby’s famous mood swings, although a loved one said “he has great listening skills and good listening skills. ‘analysis.”
Seventeen prime ministers came and went under Deby until in 2018 he abolished the post to assume full executive authority.
“Everything is centralized around the presidency – he uses all the weapons of absolute power while intimidating society,” said Roland Marchal at the Center for International Research at the School of Sciences Po in Paris.
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