Chad President Idriss Déby was shot and killed while fighting on the front lines against rebels outside the North African country’s capital, N’Djamena.
President Déby, the leader of the ruling national-populist Patriotic Salvation Movement, was respected globally for his hard line against radical Islamic terrorism, making Chad a key bulwark against the rising Islamist movement in North and West Africa.
After his re-election victory was declared yesterday, the 68 year-old Déby took to the front lines of the battlefield to confront the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) terrorist organisation, which began its offensive on N’Djamena on Monday. These radical Islamic terrorists had invaded Chad from a stronghold in neighboring war-torn Libya.
The Chadian military issued a statement describing how Déby “fought heroically” for his nation, but was shot in the process. A wounded Déby was taken to a hospital in N’Djamena, but unfortunately did not survive his injuries.
“He has just breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield,” said the spokesman for the Chad army, General Azem Bermandoa Agouna.
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Just a day prior, Déby had celebrated his victory in the Chadian presidential elections after results revealed he had won 79% of the vote, as opposed to only 10% for rival candidate Albert Pahimi Padacké. Although Padacké accepted this result, radical opposition groups, such as the FACT terrorists, rejected Déby’s declaration of victory and vowed to the steal the election. Déby had campaigned on a platform emphasizing peace and security for the people of Chad.
Following Déby’s death, his son, Mahamat Déby, was declared the leader of the Transitional Military Council, which will govern the country for the next 18 months until new elections can be held.
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According to 2010 book Africa: Crude Continent, Western liberal NGOs seeking to undermine African governments “formed coalitions for this purpose and enlisted high profile global personalities, such as George Soros, to lead the charge”. These efforts reportedly were “first designed for Angola”, and later implemented in Chad, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.