But this week, as Mr. Déby cruised toward a sixth electoral victory that would have made him one of the longest-serving leaders in the world, he went to the front line for the last time.
On April 11, rebels crossed into Chad from Libya — roaring across the desert in a line of vehicles just as Chadians were going to the polls for a presidential election. By last weekend, as fighting intensified, Mr. Déby had flown to northern Chad to command his forces, the army said.
On Tuesday, the army announced that the president had been killed on the battlefield, and that his 37-year-old son, Mahamat, was taking over as the interim head of state. Just a day before, provisional election results showed that Mr. Déby had won almost 80 percent of the vote.
In the capital, Ndjamena, residents scrambled for the safety of their homes, gripped by uncertainty over what might come after the abrupt departure of the man who had led them for three decades.
Mr. Déby was born in 1952, the son of a herder who scraped a living from the harsh deserts of northern Chad. After enrolling in the military, he left in the 1970s for training in France, where he qualified as a pilot, and returned to Chad in 1979 to find the country torn between rival warlords.
Mr. Déby allied with one of them, Hissène Habré, who in 1982 became president and appointed him as his army chief.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/20/world/africa/idriss-deby-chad-obituary.html
Comments