Update: General Mahamat, Killed Chadian President’s Son, Succeeds Him |The Source

By Akinwale Kasali

The Chadian Army which announced the death in battle with rebels, of the Chadian President, Idriss Derby, on Tuesday, has set up a Military Council, and a new Leader.

To head the Military Council for about 18 months, is the late President’s son,  Mahamatt Idriss Derby.

The new leader, a four star Army General, is 37 years old.

Deby, 68, had ruled Chad for three decades and was a key ally in the West’s anti-jihadist campaign in the troubled Sahel region.

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 would have been one of the longest-serving leaders in the world, after provisional results showed him winning the April 11 election.

The late President was the son of a Herder from the Zaghawa ethnic group who took the  path to power through the army and loved  the military culture.

His latest election victory as President, with almost 80 percent of the vote was not in doubt.  A divided opposition called for boycott. Demonstrations were either banned or dispersed.

Said a report “Derby had campaigned on a promise of bringing peace and security to the region, but his pledges were undermined by the rebel incursion.

“The Government had  on Monday sought to assure concerned residents that the offensive was over.”

“The tanks were later withdrawn apart from a perimeter around the president’s office, which is under heavy security during normal times.

“The establishment of a security deployment in certain areas of the capital seems to have been misunderstood,” government spokesman Cherif Mahamat Zene had said on Twitter on Monday.

“There is no particular threat to fear.”

However, the US embassy in N’Djamena had on Saturday ordered non-essential personnel to leave the country, warning of possible violence in the capital. Britain also urged its nationals to leave.

France’s embassy said in an advisory to its nationals in Chad that the deployment was a precaution and there was no specific threat to the capital.

Sources in N’DJamena, the country’s capital said “The rebel raid in the provinces of Tibesti and Kanem was carried out by the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), based in Libya.

“The group has a non-aggression pact with Khalifa Haftar, a military strongman who controls much of Libya’s east.

“FACT, a group mainly made up of the Saharan Goran people, said in a statement Sunday that it had “liberated” the Kanem region. Such claims in remote desert combat zones are difficult to verify.

“The Tibesti mountains near the Libyan frontier frequently see fighting between rebels and the army, as well as in the northeast bordering Sudan. French air strikes were needed to stop an incursion there in February 2019.”

In February 2008, a rebel assault reached the gates of the presidential palace before being pushed back with French backing.