Chad’s President, Idriss Déby reported dead in rebels clash a day after winning Presidential election

Chad’s President and one of Africa’s longest serving leaders, Idriss Déby Itno has been reported dead a day after winning the country’s Presidential race for the sixth term.

The state longest serving President, BBC report, the army in a live television broadcast said lost his life in clashes with rebels in the north of the country at the weekend.

According to the report, he had gone to the front line at the weekend to pay troops battling rebels based across the Libyan boarder a visit when the unfortunate incident happened.

Déby re-elected for the sixth term

President Idriss Déby Itno first ascended the Presidency in an armed uprising in 1990 and has since rule the North Central African country till date.

On Monday, April 19, he was re-elected to a sixth term with 79.32 percent of the votes cast in April 11’s election, according to provisional results from the country’s electoral commission.

“On Monday, provisional results from the election on 11 April projected he would win a sixth term in office, with 80% of the vote,” the report said.

Déby son to led Military Council to govern the state for 18month

Upon the news of his dead, the government and parliament have been dissolved to pave way for a military council to govern the country in the next 18 month.

The council, BBC report would be led by his 37 year old son, a four-star general of the army, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno.

“Mr Déby “breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield”, an army general said in a statement read out on state TV”.

The rebel attack

The rebels, from a group calling itself Fact (the Front for Change and Concord in Chad), the report indicate attacked a border post on election day and were advancing on the capital, N’Djamena, several hundred kilometres to the south.

An army general told Reuters news agency that 300 insurgents were killed and 150 captured in the clashes which began on Saturday.

Also five government soldiers were killed and 36 others were injured. The figures, the report could not immediately verified.

Mr Déby was a long-time ally of France and other Western powers in the battle against jihadist groups in the Sahel region of Africa. However, there has been growing unhappiness over his government’s management of Chad’s oil resources, the report said.

Source: GhanaPlus.com