Chad’s President killed after visiting frontline soldiers who're battling rebels

According to a report by the BBC, the clash ensued in the north of the country over the weekend.

He had gone to the front line at the weekend to visit troops battling rebels based across the border in Libya.

The news outlet reported Chad’s army as having announced the death of Idriss Déby on state TV.

Provisional election results had suggested that he was on course to win a sixth term in office, with 80% of the April 11 presidential election.

The 68-year-old President came to power in an armed uprising in 1990.

A statement issued by the country’s army spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouna said he “has just breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield”.

Reports say the government and parliament have been dissolved following Idriss Déby’s death and a military council will govern for the next 18 months.

Al Jazeera’s reporter Hiba Morgan said the setting up of a military council after the demise of the President is inconsistent with Chad’s constitution.

“What the constitution says is that in the absence of the president or in case he dies, then the speaker of the parliament takes charge of the country for 40 days and so a transition is put in place until elections are held,” she said.

“[But] the military announced that the legislative assembly has been dissolved and that the constitution also has been dissolved, so what they are doing is that they replaced the constitution with their own set of rules.”

Chad’s President killed after visiting frontline soldiers who're battling rebels

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