By our Reporter
The death of Idriss Deby Itno,Chad’s President has been announced. He was reported to have died on the battlefield after three decades in power, the army announced on state television on Tuesday.
The announcement came as a shock to people after the 68-year-old was proclaimed the winner of a presidential election 24 hours later which should his sixth term in office.
Accoding to the army: Deby had been commanding his army at the weekend as it battled against rebels who had launched a major incursion into the north of the country on Election Day.
Deby “has just breathed his last breath defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield,” army spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouna said in a statement read out on state television.
Deby had ruled Chad for three decades and he remained a key ally in the West’s anti-jihadist campaign in the troubled Sahel region saying the military council led by the late president’s 37-year-old son Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, a four-star general, would replace him.
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.
Debby was a herder’s son from the Zaghawa ethnic group who took the classic path to power through the army, and relished the military culture and would have been one of the longest serving leaders if not for his death.