Chad’s army on Tuesday confirmed President Idriss Deby died while visiting troops on the front line of a fight against northern rebels, reported Africa News.
The shocking news of Deby’s death comes just after he was declared the winner of a presidential election that would have handed him a sixth term in office. The presidential election was held on April 11. Provisional results released on Monday showed Deby secured 79.3 percent of the vote.
In a televised statement, army spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouna said the 68-year-old Deby “has just breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield” over the weekend. The exact circumstances of the president’s death, however, remain unclear.
The army announced that the national assembly and government have been dissolved and that a transitional charter will be put in place by the military transitional council’s president. As per Chad’s suspended constitution, the speaker of the now-dissolved legislative assembly would have been the one to exercise provisional presidential powers and lead the country’s transition.
But the army spokesman said that one of Deby’s sons, General Mahamat Kaka Idriss Déby Itno, will head a military council to replace the late president.
A curfew from 6 pm to 5 am has been imposed in all national territory. External borders have been closed until the new orders are in place. A fourteen-day national mourning period has also been announced in the wake of the president’s death.
The army spokesman announced that a transitional government will be formed and new republican institutions will be put in place to facilitate the transition by the organization of free, democratic, and transparent elections.
Meanwhile, Chad’s authorities said a state funeral for the late president will be held on Friday. Heads of state and government of neighboring countries will attend the funeral ceremony in N’Djamena before Deby is laid to rest in his home region in the country’s far east.
