Chad shut borders, imposes curfew after president’s death

Following the death of longtime President Idriss Deby Itno on Tuesday, Chad imposed a curfew and closed its borders.

After longtime President Idriss Deby Itno died on Tuesday, Chad’s army dissolved the government and parliament, promising “free and fair” elections after an 18-month transition period.

Following the death of the leader who had dominated the country with an iron fist for three decades, the army declared that one of Deby’s sons would take his place as the president of a military council.

The army said Tuesday that Chad’s newly re-elected President Idriss Deby Itno, who had been in power for three decades, died of injuries while battling rebels in the north of the Sahel region.

On Monday, the army reported that 300 Front for Change and Concord rebels had been killed in Chad, though FACT alleged in a statement that Deby had been wounded – an assertion that official sources could not confirm.

Deby “has just breathed his last protecting the sovereign nation on the battlefield” over the weekend, army spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouna said in a statement read out on state television.

Late Monday, the career military man who seized power in the former French colony following a 1990 coup was declared re-elected with nearly 80 percent of the vote.

Deby was in the area on Saturday and Sunday, according to ministers and high-ranking military brass, after rebels launched an offensive from rear bases in Libya on the day of the election, April 11.

With a fragmented opposition, protest appeals, and a movement that outlawed or dispersed protests, the outcome was never in doubt.