Rumours of a coup d'etat sweep Chad after president Idriss Deby is 'killed while battling rebels' hours after he was elected for a sixth term

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Rumours of a coup d'etat are sweeping across Chad after the army announced the president had been killed while fighting rebels on the front line just hours after winning a sixth term.  

Idriss Deby, 68, 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 army said Deby had been commanding soldiers at the weekend as it battled against rebels who had launched a major incursion into the north of the country on election day. 

The military quickly announced Deby's son Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, 37, as the central African nation's interim leader and dissolved government, imposed a curfew and shut the borders. 

Some observers immediately questioned the chain of events leading up to Tuesday's stunning announcement on national radio and television. 

Idriss Deby, pictured last year, has been killed while fighting rebels on the front line just hours after winning a sixth term, the army said

Deby, 68, (pictured in 2018) ruled over the central African nation for more than three decades and was one of the world's longest serving leaders

Deby speaks during his meeting with the Israeli President at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, Israel, in November 2018 

The military quickly announced Deby's son Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno (pictured), 37, as the central African nation's interim leader

Deby was a major French ally in the fight against Islamic extremism in Africa and had survived a number of armed rebellions

Ayo Sogunro, a Nigerian lawyer and fellow at the South Africa-based Center for Human Rights, said that under Chadian law the term of an incumbent president who dies is completed not by family members but by the National Assembly.

'The army seizing power and conferring it on the son of the president ... is a coup and unconstitutional,' Sogunro tweeted Tuesday, calling for the African Union to condemn the transfer of power. 

Some residents of the capital N'Djamena also feared there was more to the story of Deby's demise.

'The rumors that are going around about the transitional council give me the impression that some information is false,' Thierry Djikoloum said. 'They are already talking about dissolving parliament ... So for me, I'd say it was a coup d'etat. He was killed.'

The president's son is best known as a top commander of the Chadian forces aiding a UN peacekeeping mission in northern Mali and will now head an 18-month transitional council following his father's death.

Deby had ruled Chad with an iron fist since 1990 but was a key ally in the West's anti-jihadist campaign in the troubled Sahel region. 

Emmanuel Macron hailed Deby as a 'courageous friend' in a statement as he said: 'Chad is losing a great soldier and a president who has worked tirelessly for the security of the country and the stability of the region for three decades.'

President Idriss Deby is seen in 2006 while visiting troops in Adre, Chad

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)

Deby had ruled Chad with an iron fist since 1990 but was a key ally in the West's anti-jihadist campaign in the troubled Sahel region (pictured in 1990)

French president Emmanuel Macron called Deby 'a courageous friend' in a statement after his death on Tuesday

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

He 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.

His latest election victory, announced on Monday with almost 80 percent of the vote, had never been in doubt, with a divided opposition, boycott calls, and a campaign in which demonstrations were banned or dispersed.

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

On voting day on April 11, a group of rebels based and trained in Libya from the group FACT (the Front for Change and Concord in Chad) mounted an attack and gradually advanced on the capital.

Previous rebel fighting had taken place much further north near the Libyan border suggesting the unrest has moved south towards N'Djamena.

In this file photo taken on April 02, 1984 in N'Djamena, French General Jean Poli (R) meets Chad's Chief of Staff Idriss Deby

The government sought Monday to assure concerned residents that the offensive was over.

There had been panic in some areas of N'Djamena on Monday after tanks were deployed along the city's main roads, an AFP journalist reported.

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.

Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno, center-right, meets with French Defense Minister Herve Morin, center-left, in N'Djamena, Chad, in 2006

The army said a military council led by the late president's 37-year-old son Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno (pictured), a four-star general, would replace him 

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.

FACT, which is based in Libya and was founded by disillusioned army officers, has a non-aggression pact with Khalifa Haftar, a military strongman who controls much of Libya's east.

The group is mainly made up of the Saharan Goran people and it 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.  

A supporter carries a picture of Chad President Idriss Deby during a Peace Process rally in Darfur, in Al Fashir capital of North Darfur September 7, 2016

The son of a herder who was backed by France in his fight against Islamist insurgents  

Idriss Deby, who was on course for a sixth term as Chad's president before he died from injuries sustained in battle, had carved out a reputation as the West's stalwart ally in the Sahel - despite accusations of authoritarianism.

The 68-year-old son of a herder would have been one of the longest-serving leaders in the world, after provisional results showed him winning reelection this week.

But his shock death cut his 30-year political career short and will likely throw Chadian politics into disarray.

He died from injuries sustained while fighting rebels this weekend in the country's restive north, the army said Tuesday.

His death comes after elections this month that were marred by a rebel offensive launched in the north on election day. The army said Monday it had killed 300 rebels and quashed the offensive.

Deby's long rule in the region's brutal politics has made him a reliable figure in the French-led campaign against jihadist insurgents in the Sahel.

Deby is welcomed to the Elysee Palace by French President Francois Mitterrand February 12, 1991

Deby, from the Zaghawa ethnic group, took the classic path to power through the army, and relished the military culture.

Last August, the National Assembly named him field marshal, the first in Chad's history, after he led an offensive against jihadists who had killed nearly 100 troops at a base in the west of the country.

Dressed in a dark-blue silk cape embroidered with oak leaves, and clutching a baton, Deby dedicated the tribute to 'all my brothers in arms.'

As a young man, Deby enrolled at the officers' academy in the capital N'Djamena before heading to France, where he trained as a pilot.

He returned in 1979 to a country in the grip of feuding warlords.

Deby hitched his star to Hissene Habre and was rewarded with the post of army chief after Habre came to power in 1982, ousting Goukouni Weddeye.

In the following years, Deby distinguished himself fighting Libyan-backed rebels over mountainous territory in the north of the country.

But in 1989, he fell out with his increasingly paranoid boss, who accused him of plotting a coup.

Deby fled to Sudan, where he assembled an armed rebel group, the Patriotic Salvation Movement, which rolled into N'Djamena unopposed in December 1990.

In 1996, six years after he seized power and ushered in democracy, Deby was elected head of state in Chad's first multi-party vote.

He won again in succeeding elections.

The main opposition withdrew its participation in 2006 and 2011, irked by a change to the constitution enabling the former soldier to renew his term, and the elections in 2015 were marked by accusations of fraud. 

Deby was solidly backed by former colonial power France, which in 2008 and in 2019 used military force to help defeat rebels who tried to oust him.

'We safeguarded an absolutely major ally in the struggle against terrorism in the Sahel,' French Defence Minister Florence Parly told parliament in 2019.

Deby supported French intervention in northern Mali in 2013 to repel jihadists, and the following year stepped in to end chaos in the Central African Republic.

In 2015, Deby launched a regional offensive in Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger against Nigeria-based Boko Haram jihadists, dubbing the Islamic State affiliate 'a horde of crazies and drug addicts'.

One of Deby's political rivals, Saleh Kebzabo, had protested against France's backing and urged the world to recognise the regime's 'dictatorial nature.'

Deby's power base, the army, comprises mainly troops from the president's Zaghawa ethnic group and is commanded by loyalists.

It is considered one of the best in Sahel. According to the International Crisis Group think tank, defence spending accounts for between 30 and 40 percent of Chad's annual budget. 

In 2018, Deby scrapped the position of prime minister to assume full executive authority.

'Everything is centralised around the presidency - he uses all the weapons of absolute power while bullying society,' said Roland Marchal at the Centre of International Research at the Sciences Po school in Paris, speaking before Deby's death.

Marchal said Deby had a reputation for a hot temper and notorious mood swings, although a close aide said he had 'great listening ability and analytical skills'.

Deby was been accused of iron-fisted rule during his long reign. Banned opposition demonstrations, arbitrary arrests and severed access to social networks raised regular objections from human rights groups.

Another common complaint is that Deby has named relatives and cronies to key positions, and failed to address the poverty that afflicts many of Chad's 13 million people despite oil wealth.

The country ranks 187th out of 189 in the UN's Human Development Index (HDI).