Idriss Déby's son, announced dead on Tuesday, took the reins of a transitional military council. A strong man in the Presidential Guard, he will be in charge of Chad for at least eighteen months.
He is one of the sons of Idriss Déby, who died, according to the official version of the army, in combat as a result of his injuries. Mahamat Idriss Déby is a 37-year-old four-star general. Until now commander of the presidential guard, he will head a transitional military council, while waiting for a new president to be elected in Chad. According to sources close to the Chadian presidency, Déby's son was opposed to his father going to the front. This departure for the fight had been the occasion of tensions between the Zaghawa officers, the ethnicity of Marshal Déby, some pushing the Head of State to go to the front when others warned him that it was too risky.
When he received two bullets in the back, Idriss Déby was between life and death. His son, Mahamat Idriss Déby, then immediately approached the officers of the inner circle of the presidency of the republic. Because according to the Constitution, it should have been for the President of Parliament to take the reins of the country at the time of the president's death. But with the army, no question of procrastinating: the Constitution was immediately suspended.
FACT wants to continue its offensive
In the process, the head of the Presidential Guard decided to dissolve the government and the National Assembly. The CMT "guarantees national independence, territorial integrity, national unity, respect for treaties and international agreements and ensures the transition for a period of 18 months," said the army, while a cover- fire was established and the borders with Chad's neighbors were closed.
And the Marshal's son therefore has the mission of governing the country for the next eighteen months. At the end of this transition, Mahamat Idriss Déby promises “free and democratic” elections, according to the army press release. He also says that new institutions will emerge within a year and a half.
Mahamat Idriss Déby will have a lot to do for his first steps at the head of the country: the rebels, who have been leading an offensive since the presidential election, rejected " categorically "the new military council and intends" to continue the offensive ", according to the words of Kingabé Ogouzeimi de Tapol, spokesperson for the Front pour l'alternance et la concorde au Tchad (FACT) which promised to take the capital, N 'Djamena.
Idriss Déby's death is a blow to France. Paris lamented the loss of "a courageous friend". And for good reason, Idriss Déby had promised to send men to the “Trois-Frontières” region. France is demanding a " peaceful transition ”and recalls its“ firm attachment to the stability and territorial integrity ”of Chad. But Paris must now review its strategy in the Sahel, especially if Chad is faced with a FACT offensive on its own territory.