The accession to power of Mr. Déby’s son Mahamat Idriss Déby, a 37-year-old four-star military general, drew immediate condemnation because it violated the constitution, which specifies that the president of the national assembly, or failing that, the first vice president, should take over when a president dies.
“That by itself is a coup d’état,” said Vava Tampa, an analyst and activist focused on French-speaking Africa.
But the younger Mr. Déby faces an immediate threat to his rule from the same well-armed rebels accused of killing his father.
On the same day as the presidential election, April 11, rebels crossed the northern border from Libya, according to local media outlets. Those rebels, from a group called the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (F.A.C.T., by its French acronym), moved southward in several columns and claimed to have “liberated” a province of the country last week.
They reportedly beat a retreat to the north on Monday night after reports of heavy losses on both rebel and government sides. The government’s spokesman said the rebels’ “adventure had come to an end,” but the group said it had killed or wounded 15 top-ranking army officers, and was merely regrouping.
On Tuesday night, the F.A.C.T. rebel group announced on Twitter that its forces were on their way to the capital. Kingabe Ogouzeimi de Tapol, a spokesman for the group, said, “Chad is not a monarchy. There cannot be any dynastic devolution of power in our country.”
France’s top politicians paid tribute to an ally they had come to depend upon over decades. France lost a “courageous friend” in Mr. Déby, a spokesman for President Emmanuel Macron said, while the foreign affairs minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, called him “a reliable partner who worked relentlessly for the security of his country and the stability of the Sahel.”
The Link LonkApril 20, 2021 at 06:31PM
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Idriss Déby, President of Chad, Dies After Clashes With Rebels - The New York Times
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