Macron will attend the funeral of Chadian President Idriss Déby

Emmanuel Macron will go to the funeral of Chadian President Idriss Déby on Friday, killed in action on Monday, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said. "The President of the Republic paid tribute to him this morning in the Council of Ministers, he will go to his funeral at the end of the week", specified Gabriel Attal during a press conference, while greeting, "a man of courage, a man passionate about his country ".

Idriss Déby Itno, in power for 30 years and a key partner of the West in the fight against jihadists in the Sahel, died Monday, according to the Chadian presidency, at the age of 68, as a result of injuries sustained at the front against rebels.

One of his sons, a 37-year-old general, succeeds him at the head of a military council which dissolved the government and the National Assembly and swore that new institutions would emerge after "free and democratic" elections in a year and a half.

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- Sahel: why the death of Chadian President Déby worries France

A loyal ally of France in the Sahel 

The funeral of the leader must be celebrated Friday in N'Djamena, the capital of the country, before his burial in his native region in the far east, the Chadian presidency said on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the Elysee Palace reacted to Déby's death, indicating that France was losing "a courageous friend" and stressing the importance of a "peaceful transition" in Chad. 

Paris "expresses its firm attachment to the stability and territorial integrity of Chad," a press release from the presidency said.