Chad Thrown Into Turmoil Following President’s Death
President Idriss Déby died of wounds sustained in battle. (Flickr)
Chadian President Idriss Déby was killed in battle by rebel forces on April 19, just hours after he was re-elected to a sixth term in office. Déby ruled Chad with an iron fist since he came to power in a coup in 1990. His death may spur intense conflict between the existing military establishment, rebel groups, and political opposition that has long chafed under one-party control.
A spokesman for the military, Azem Bermendao Agouna, stated that Déby “took his last breath defending the territorial integrity on the battlefield” during a visit to troops fighting rebels in the north of the country. The army did not release any further information about the circumstances surrounding Déby’s death.
Déby’s son, 37-year-old General Mahamat Idriss Déby, has been named interim president by a transitional council of high-ranking military officers. According to Djimadoum Tirayna, vice president of the Transitional Military Council, the army wants to return power to a civilian government and to hold new elections in 18 months. The Chadian constitution, however, stipulates that the speaker of parliament should take over if a sitting president dies, with elections to be held within the first 90 days after the presidency becomes vacant.
The army also dissolved the parliament and government, suspended the constitution, closed all air and land borders, and instituted a curfew. It is currently unclear when, if at all, these measures will be reversed.
Déby’s death comes at a time of renewed upheaval in Chad. On the election day of April 11, a Libya-based rebel group known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) began to march on the country’s capital, N’Djamena. Rebel forces advanced several hundred kilometers south before clashing with the Chadian military, prompting the United States embassy to order its non-essential staff to leave the country. Déby was killed visiting the battlefront, which was about 300 kilometers from the capital.
Following the announcement of Déby’s death, FACT vowed to keep fighting. Spokesman Kingabe Ogouzeimi said, “We are preparing for the final assault.”
FACT was formed in 2016 by former military officers looking to oust the Déby regime from power. The rebel group is largely made up of members of the Goran tribe dissatisfied with Déby’s favoritism toward his own Zaghawa tribe, but it maintains support from many different segments of Chadian society.
The group launches its attacks from the Tibesti mountain region in Libya, where it has an agreement with prominent warlord Khalifa Haftar. A wide array of Chadian rebel and mercenary groups have found safe haven in Libya since that country’s civil war commenced in 2014. Resistance to the government has grown stronger in recent years due to its perceived preference for certain ethnic groups and corrupt handling of natural resources.
Animosity was heightened by this year’s election, which the opposition claims was rigged in Déby’s favor. The Chadian Supreme Court disqualified seven candidates from running, and at least one was arrested, leading to widespread protests. These moves, in addition to the 2018 adoption of a new constitution that would have allowed Déby to rule Chad until 2033, led most of the opposition to boycott the election. In Déby’s own words, “I know in advance that I will win, as I have done for the last 30 years.”
Along with the aforementioned domestic challenges, the instability engulfing Chad will also have important implications for the Sahel region. Déby was a staunch Western ally in the fight against Islamist terrorist groups across the Sahel. Under his command, the Chadian military became the most formidable fighting force in the G5 Sahel, a regional economic and security bloc that also includes Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. Déby’s death and the increasing possibility of regime change in Chad may impede the counterterrorism effort.