N’Djamena, Chad – Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno, who ruled the Central African nation for more than three decades, was assassinated on Tuesday on the battlefield in a fight against the rebels, the army announced on national television and radio. The military said a transitional council will be headed by Deby’s son, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno.
MARCO LONGARI / AFP / Getty
The impressive announcement came just hours after election officials had declared Deby the winner of the April 11 presidential election, paving the way for her to stay in power for another six years.
The circumstances of Deby’s death could not be immediately confirmed independently due to the remote location of the battlefield. It was not known why the president would have visited the northern front lines of Chad or take part in ongoing clashes with rebels who opposed his government.
Deby, a former army commander-in-chief, first came to power in 1990 when his rebel forces overthrew then-President Hissene Habre. who was later convicted of human rights abuses in an international tribunal in Senegal.
Over the years, Deby had survived numerous armed rebellions and had managed to stay in power until this latest insurgency led by a group called the Front for Change and Concord in Chad.
The rebels are believed to have armed and trained in neighboring Libya before entering northern Chad on 11 April. His arrival came on the same day that the president of Chad sought a sixth term on election day, which was boycotted by several top opposition candidates.
The Deby regime has been fighting persistent insurgencies for years and opposition parities have boycotted previous elections. International rights group Amnesty International has accused its state security forces of carrying out “a regime of assassination, torture and enforced disappearance of alleged government opponents.”