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Chad's long-term ruler Idriss Déby Itno is dead. Military spokesman Azem Bermandoa Agouna announced on state television on Tuesday.

The head of state died in serious clashes with a rebel group at the front.

According to this, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, the son of the late president and four-star general, is to take over the leadership of a military transitional government.

Déby was considered an important ally of the West in the fight against violent Islamists in the Sahel zone.

“Idriss Déby Itno has just taken his last breath on the battlefield while defending territorial integrity.

We announce the death of the Marshal of Chad to the Chadian people with deep bitterness, ”said Agouna.

Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, who has previously headed the elite unit of the Chadian armed forces, will head a transitional military council for 18 months, according to Agouna.

The government and the National Assembly have already been dissolved.

Instead of the current constitution, a national transitional charter will be announced shortly, it said.

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In addition, a 14-day state mourning was imposed.

Chad's air and land borders have been closed until further notice, with a curfew between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m. local time.

The army of the Central African country, plagued by poverty and terrorism, is fighting heavily armed fighters from the “Front for Change and Unity in Chad” (FACT) who invaded northern Chad from neighboring Libya for the presidential election on April 11 and headed for the capital N. 'Djamena advanced.

The FACT is a political and military rebel movement founded in 2016 that aims to destabilize the government of Déby.

Idriss Déby with his wife Amani Hilal on April 9 at an election rally in the capital, N'Djamena

Source: AFP / MARCO LONGARI

Déby, who has been in power for 30 years, emerged as the winner of the presidential election on April 11 on Monday with 79.32 percent of the votes cast.

He came to power in an armed uprising in 1990.

Chad is a strategic state for Europe. The former colonial power France is supporting the G5-Sahel alliance in the fight against Islamist terrorism in the region with French soldiers and fighter pilots stationed in Chad. A number of terrorist groups are active in the Sahel. In addition to Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso are also involved in the G5 Sahel military alliance.