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left-of-center2012

(34,195 posts)
Tue Apr 20, 2021, 12:31 PM Apr 2021

Chadian president killed on battlefield after 30 years in power, military says

Chad’s longtime leader has died of wounds suffered during a visit to front-line troops battling a little-known rebel group, the military announced Tuesday, just hours after he was declared the winner of an election that would have given him another six years in power. The military quickly announced President Idriss Deby Itno’s son as the central African nation’s interim leader, succeeding his 68-year-old father who ruled for more than three decades.

Some observers immediately questioned the chain of events leading up to Tuesday’s stunning announcement on national radio and television. Ayo Sogunro, a Nigerian lawyer and fellow at the South Africa-based Center for Human Rights, said that under Chadian law the term of an incumbent president who dies is completed not by family members but by the National Assembly.

“The army seizing power and conferring it on the son of the president ... is a coup and unconstitutional,” Sogunro tweeted Tuesday, calling for the African Union to condemn the transfer of power.

Some residents of the capital said they feared there was more to the story of Deby’s demise. “The rumors that are going around about the transitional council give me the impression that some information is false,” Thierry Djikoloum said. “They are already talking about dissolving parliament ... So for me, I’d say it was a coup d’etat. He was killed.”

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/world/2021/04/20/Chad-President-Idriss-Deby-Itno-dead-killed-dies-central-Africa-Chadian-rebels/stories/202104200108

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Chadian president killed on battlefield after 30 years in power, military says (Original Post) left-of-center2012 Apr 2021 OP
There's a big mess that will be a problem in the near future. 2naSalit Apr 2021 #1
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