Election to hold 18 months after president’s death, says Chadian Army

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.