Chad’s president Idriss Deby is killed ‘while fighting rebels on the front line’ – hours after winning a sixth term in elections
- Deby, 68, had travelled to the front lines at the northern border with Libya
- Former military commander had secured victory in landslide election Monday
- General today announced Deby had succumbed to injuries sustained in battle
- Insurgents had carried out spate of attacks on polling stations during election
The president of Chad has been killed while fighting rebels on the front line just hours after winning a sixth term.
Idriss Deby, who ruled over the central African nation for more than three decades, ‘breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield,’ an army spokesman said today.
The 68-year-old had travelled directly to the front after winning in a landslide on Monday, an election which had been boycotted by his rivals.
Details were still emerging on Tuesday of what happened to Deby, whose forces have been battling insurgents Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), which is headquartered across the northern border with Libya.
Idriss Deby, who ruled over the central African nation for more than three decades, ‘breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield,’ an army spokesman said today (file photo)
The group suffered a heavy defeat over the weekend, according to the Chadian defence ministry.
Spokesman, Azem Bermendao Agouna, told Reuters that army troops had killed more than 300 insurgents and captured 150 on Saturday in Kanem province, around 185 miles from the capital N’Djamena.
Five government soldiers were killed and 36 were injured, he said.
The unrest has raised alarm bells among Western countries, which have seen Deby as an ally in the fight against Islamist extremist groups, including Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin and groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State in the Sahel.
Deby, who has long faced insurgencies in the north, was also dealing with mounting public discontent over his management of Chad’s oil wealth and crackdowns on opponents.
The United States ordered all of its non-essential embassy staff to leave the country on Saturday. The British government had urged its citizens to leave the previous day.
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