The president of Chad has been killed on the front line after a clash between the army and rebels at the border.
An army spokesperson confirmed Idriss Deby, who has ruled Chad for over 30 years, died of his injuries on Tuesday.
It comes a day after the 68-year-old was declared the winner of a sixth term in office. Deby, who came to power in a rebellion in 1990, took 79.3% of the vote in the April 11 election, which was boycotted by top opposition leaders.
He was expected to give a victory speech to supporters on Monday, but his campaign director, Mahamat Zen Bada, said he had instead gone to visit Chadian soldiers on the front lines.
‘The candidate would have liked to have been here to celebrate … but right now, he is alongside our valiant defence and security forces to fight the terrorists threatening our territory,’ Zen Bada told reporters.
Rebels based across the northern frontier in Libya attacked a border post on election day and then advanced hundreds of kilometres south across the desert.
Army spokesperson, Général Azem Bemrandoua Agouna, said the military had been pushed back by a column of insurgents who were advancing on the capital, N’Djamena.
According to one report, the soldiers were attacked by militants from Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT).
Their stated goal was to rid the country of Deby’s 31 years of power. It is thought Deby might be the first head of state to die in battle since Paraguay’s Francisco Solano López in 1870.
An interim military council will govern for the next 18 months, ruled by Deby’s son General Mahamat Kaka.
The news was announced on state television by army spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouna.
He said Deby ‘has just breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield’. (Metro)
