Paris, France | THE INDEPENDENT & XINHUA | Reports out of N’Djamena indicate that Chad’s newly re-elected long serving President Idriss Deby has been killed. The army indicated he died Tuesday of injuries while fighting rebels in the north of the Sahel country, according to AFP.
Idriss Deby had just won the absolute majority in the first round of the presidential election. According to the CENI, Deby had received 3,663,431 votes, or 79.32% of all votes cast. Voter turnout was 64.81 percent.
Since April 11, the polling day, militants of the Front for Alternation and Concord in Chad (FACT), an armed rebel group based in neighboring Libya, have made incursions into the province of Tibesti, in northern Chad.
More than 300 FACT rebels were killed and 150 others, including three top leaders, taken prisoner last Saturday in Chad’s western Kanem province, a Chadian army spokesperson said.
The battleground is some 300 km north of the capital N’Djamena. On Monday, security in the capital city has been beefed up with tanks deployed in major strategic positions.
The government called on the population to stay calm, saying the security reinforcement was misinterpreted, and there is no particular threat to fear.
Several opposition parties and civil society organizations in Chad called on the warring parties to reach a ceasefire, and asked the government to open an inclusive national dialogue to ease tensions.
In early March, three opposition candidates announced their withdrawal from the race, including Saleh Kebzabo, heavyweight of the opposition who wants to boycott the election. Kebzabo came second in the 2016 presidential election.
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