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Idriss Déby, the military pilot who ruled Chad for over 30 years and died on the front lines

2021-04-20T19:03:13.060Z


Two months after his 69th birthday, Déby was a military man and the president of Chad since 1990. 04/20/2021 14:30 Clarín.com World Updated 04/20/2021 2:30 PM The news coming from Chad , this landlocked country in the heart of Africa, is often related to conflicts, wars, poverty and limitations of all kinds. The latest information in this chain of agonizing news is the death in combat of its president: the general and dictator Idriss Déby. Who was? Two months after turning 69, Déby was a m


04/20/2021 14:30

  • Clarín.com

  • World

Updated 04/20/2021 2:30 PM

The news coming from

Chad

, this landlocked country in the heart of Africa, is often related to conflicts, wars, poverty and limitations of all kinds.

The latest information in this chain of agonizing news is the death in combat of its president: the general and dictator

Idriss Déby.

Who was?

Two months after turning 69, Déby was a military man and the president of Chad from 1990 until this Tuesday.

He died in combat in northern Chad, while commanding troops fighting the rebel group Front for Alternative and Concord of Chad (FACT for its acronym in French).

Idriss Déby and his wife Amani Hilal during a campaign event.

Photo: AFP

Just one day earlier, on Monday, April 19, his victory had been confirmed in the elections held on April 11 in his country, which had enabled him to begin

his sixth consecutive term

as head of the Chadian presidency.

Fighter pilot

Déby, of Sunni religion (the majority Muslim group in the world Islamic community), began his military career at the Officers' School in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, and then traveled to France where he graduated in 1976, at 24 years of age. age, as a fighter pilot.

Even during the civil war of the early 90s, Déby served as a general where he faced the troops of former president Hissène Habré, whom he would end up replacing as president after Déby's troops occupied the capital. Chadiana on December 2, 1990, seizing power.

Idriss Déby in a picture from 1990. Photo: AFP

Beginnings in politics

After convening national conferences with the different political parties, different organizations and rebel groups to rebuild democracy in Chad (Hissène Habré's mandate had been characterized by all kinds of human rights violations, from

mass murders

, concentration camps, torture , disappearances and even sexual slavery), Déby created the High Transitional Council, directed by him, with the aim of commanding the country until

elections are held.

Finally, for the year 1996 he was elected president in democratic elections with a majority of votes and then re-elected until April 11 of this year, where he had been appointed president for the sixth consecutive time.

Diplomatic clashes and scandals with your son

The history of Idriss Déby at the head of power was not without conflict and scandals.

In 2007 he went through one of the most complicated moments of his government.

That year,

103 children were

kidnapped

in the city of Abéché by French members of the NGO “Arca de Zoé” and caused an intense diplomatic conflict between the government of Chad and that of Spain and France.

Although the truth of the case was not completely clarified, the international conflict tried to be resolved diplomatically in a few weeks.

But what Déby could not "clean" so easily was

the murder

in a Paris parking lot of her own son, Brahim Déby, 27.

His son's personality and his constant problems with the law created a stain in the Débys' family environment that grew even more after Brahim's death.

Idriss Deby, wearing a chinstrap in the April 11 elections.

Photo: afp

Arrested in June 2006 in Paris in front of a nightclub for being part of a fight where he dropped a semi-automatic pistol without a license, his apartment was then searched and the French police found

drugs and weapons.

Brahim was sentenced to six months in prison.

It was even said of him that he was addicted to prostitution and drugs and that he used to humiliate his father's government ministers

and shot

in

and out

of the nightclubs where he attended.

Brahim became a problem for his father who fired him as a consultant.

One country, three regions

Chad is a virtually desert landlocked country in Central Africa, bordering Libya, Sudan, the Central African Republic, Nigeria and Cameroon.

It is geographically divided into three large regions: the northern desert area,

the arid Sahel belt

(the biogeographic transitional part between the Sahara desert and the Sudanese savannah) in the center, and the more fertile Sudanese savanna, south of the country.

v1.6

Chad location

Infographic:

Clarín

Lake Chad, for which the country got its name, is the largest water region it has, and the second largest lake in Africa.

Currently, according to official data, just over 16 million people live in Chad.

And only 2% of its territory has water.

With more than 200 ethnic groups, French and Arabic as official languages ​​and Christianity and Islam as its main religions, Chad gained its independence in 1960 (like many African countries)

from France.

From there it was plunged into bloody and persistent civil wars, where the rebels conquered its capital, N'Djamena, on more than one occasion, seizing power.

Even Idriss Déby defeated his successor Hissène Habré in 1990, becoming president of Chad after defeating him.

Idriss Deby at the UN General Assembly in 2014. Photo: Reuters

The

poverty and lack of resources

are the factors that most affect this country.

Also their illiteracy is high, with almost 25%, although the figures presented by UNESCO are not completely up to date.

Recently the crisis of the conflict in Darfur generated by racial issues in western Sudan crossed the borders of the latter country and destabilized Chad, which suffers from hundreds of thousands of refugees living in camps to the east of its territory.

Historically, Chad has been characterized by

the cotton industry

, but for more than a decade, mainly since 2009, it has made oil one of its main sources of income and exports.

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Source: clarin

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