Chad: the funeral of Idriss Déby Itno in the presence of several heads of state

Idriss Déby Itno recibe el título de Mariscal del Chad el 11 de agosto de 2020 en Yamena Renaud Masbeye Boybeye AFP / Archivos

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The Chadian president died on Tuesday April 20 in the fighting zone in the north-west of the country.

A dozen foreign heads of state are on site this Friday to pay a final national tribute to Marshal of Chad.

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With our correspondent in Ndjamena,

Madjiasra Nako

Eleven heads of state including the French, Emmanuel Macron, the Congolese Félix Tshisekedi, the Nigerien Mouhamed Bazoum or the representative of European diplomacy Josep Borrell are in Ndjamena for the occasion.

A notable absence, that of the Congolese Denis Sassou Nguesso who invoked family reasons.

Upon the arrival of the mortal remains at 9 a.m. on the nation's site, Idriss Déby will receive tributes from his biological and political family, his comrades in arms and then from the heads of foreign states who will be present at the Place de la Nation, in opposite the presidential palace where tents have been pitched.

Then the vice-president of the transitional military council, General Djimadoum Tiraina, one of Idriss Déby's faithful who was his last Minister of Defense, will deliver the funeral oration.

The

Marshal's attributes

will be placed on the coffin while 21 cannon shots will sound to salute the memory of the deceased.

The remains will be handed over to the family, the time for a prayer at the great mosque of Ndjamena before leaving for Amdjarass, not far from his native village where Idriss Déby Itno's body will now rest.

Macron and Déby, a close relationship

Before leaving for the Chadian capital, Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone with Hinda Déby, the wife of Idriss Déby.

Then, upon his arrival in the Chadian capital, he met face-to-face with the son of the late president, Mahamat Idriss Déby, who now heads the transitional military council.

This morning, he will attend Idriss Déby's funeral in the company of Franck Paris, his Africa adviser and Jean-Yves Le Drian, his Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Emmanuel Macron will have maintained for nearly four years a close relationship with Idriss Déby, an unwavering ally of France since 1990. A first tête-à-tête at the Élysée in the summer of 2017 quickly followed by a conference of donors for help the country in financial difficulty.

Barely installed at the Elysee Palace, Emmanuel Macron chooses to perpetuate the link established with Idriss Déby by his predecessors.

The Chadian president has made military diplomacy a central axis of his policy.

This strategy is all the more profitable in that in 2017, France decided to accelerate the implementation of the G5 Sahel joint force.

More seasoned than its Sahelian counterparts, the Chadian army will play a central role in this new entity while Chadian soldiers are already among the most numerous within Minusma.

In this context, Emmanuel Macron can hardly do without Idriss Déby, whom he visited at the end of 2018. Paris even flies to his aid in early 2019 when his power seems to be threatened by the rebels.

The French aviation bombarded a column of the UFR

coming from Libya. France may ask the Chadian president to organize the legislative elections that he has been rejecting since 2015, Idriss Déby has long turned a deaf ear. How long it takes to respect another of its commitments: that of sending 1,200 soldiers to the area known as the three borders. Struggled by Boko Haram attacks, Idriss Déby has, as is often the case, raised the stakes and called for the sound and stumbling support of his eternal ally.

According to the Elysee, Macron also met Thursday evening with the president of the Malian transition, the Mauritanian president and that of Niger.

Then with Moussa Faki Mahamat the president of the AU commission.

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  • Chad

  • Idriss Deby Itno

  • Emmanuel Macron

  • France