By Ishaku Yohanna
In a swift change of fate, a broadcast on national radio today has announced the death of Chad’s veteran president, Idriss Déby after he won a sixth term by 79.3%, according to provisional results on Monday.
According to a confirmation from the national army of Chad read on national television, the newly re-elected President Idriss Déby has died of wounds he received while commanding his army in battles against rebels in the north.
The country’s army released a statement saying that Deby died after being “injured on the frontline.”
Déby was expected to give a victory speech after receiving the provisional results of the election, but opted instead to visit Chadian soldiers on the front lines, said his campaign director Mahamat Zen Bada.
Rebels based across the northern frontier in Libya attacked a border post on Election Day and then advanced hundreds of kilometres south across the desert.
According to the army spokesperson, Général Azem Bemrandoua Agouna, the military had been pushed back by a column of insurgents who were advancing on the capital, N’Djamena.
On Monday, the army had claimed a “great victory” in its battle against the rebels from neighbouring Libya, saying it had killed 300 fighters, with the loss of five soldiers in its own ranks during eight days of combat.
Deby, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders came to power in a rebellion in 1990.
Although ruling Chad with an iron fist, he was a key ally in the West’s anti-jihadist campaign in the troubled Sahel region.
The army said a military council led by the late president’s 37-year-old son Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, a four-star general, would replace him.
