Idriss Déby, the Marshal-President killed by the rebels
Chadian President Idriss Déby in Nouakchott on June 30, 2020. AP - Ludovic Marin
Text by: Claire Fages Follow
3 min
Idriss Déby died on the front line in the face of the Facts rebellion, Chadian television announced on Tuesday April 20.
At the head of Chad for 30 years, the president, just re-elected for a new term, was above all a soldier.
Supported by the West and in particular France, despite the authoritarian drift of its regime.
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Idriss Déby Itno died as he came to power, as a warlord.
This son of a Zaghawa shepherd, born in eastern Chad, entered the Ndjamena officers' school after his baccalaureate.
He obtained a professional pilot's license in France for the transport of troops.
Having become commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the North, he helped the rebel Hissène Habré to seize power from Goukouni Oueddei in 1982, then became colonel, deputy chief of the armed forces and trained again in France at the joint war school.
The break with Hissène Habré who then persecutes the Zaghawa pushes him into exile in Sudan, where he creates the Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS), a rebel movement that will become his party.
Overthrow of Hissène Habré
On December 1, 1990, Idriss Déby seized power in Ndjamena with the help of France.
Hissène Habré fled to Senegal.
Idriss Déby, first appointed President of the Republic by his movement, was elected in 1996 in a pluralist ballot.
He will be
re-elected five times
, after having had the Constitution amended in his favor.
His regime is becoming more and more authoritarian: light has never been shed on the disappearance of the opponent
Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh
in 2008 and supporters of Yaya Dillo accuse the power in place of wanting to arrest him violently before the last presidential ballot.
Power is also undermined by internal divisions.
Pillar of the anti-jihadist fight in the Sahel
Threatened several times by rebel groups in 2005, 2006 and 2008, Idriss Déby retained the support of the West and in particular of France.
The Chadian leader is indeed at the center of the fight against the jihadists in the Sahel.
► To read also: Death of Idriss Déby: France loses an essential partner in the Sahel
Appointed Marshal last August after one of their offensives, “IDI”, as he was nicknamed, died as a soldier in combat in the face of the rebellion of the Facts, Front for Alternation and Concord in Chad, at nearly 69 years old.
Pinned down by the "Panama Papers" for having embezzled several billion dollars, Idriss Déby has not succeeded, in 30 years of being able to lift the country out of
poverty
, Chad has one of the worst indicators of human development, despite oil exploitation since the early 2000s.
►
To read also: [Live] Chad: after the death of President Déby, a military council at the head of the country
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Idriss Deby Itno
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[Live] Chad: after the death of President Déby, a military council at the head of the country