Inside Africa: The Threat Of Insurgency Lurks in Chad Following The Death Of President Déby
LUDOVIC MARIN
Idriss Déby, who ruled Chad with an iron fist for three decades, was considered by Western nations to be a crucial actor in the fight against the rise in Islamic extremist groups within the region. As gunshots rang out in N’Djamena in celebration of election results that secured Déby to rule for a sixth term, the president was dying on a battlefield in a battlefield just north of the capital. The president sustained fatal wounds while supposedly fighting rebels trying to overthrow the state government, his military generals reported. He officially passed on April 19, 2021.
The death of President Déby risks further destabilization within the region, leaving a power vacuum open for others to step in and fill. Déby acted as an intimidating leader who brooked no dissent and was feared by his own people — his death holds the ability to spark a battle for succession and leave a gaping hole in a country heavily relied upon by the West in its wars against Islamist extremists in West and Central Africa.
Questions continue to surround the mysterious nature of Déby’s death. Many question why the president himself was even on or near the battlefield. It’s been reported that Déby had been scheduled to give a victory speech that Monday to celebrate securing a sixth term in office, yet his campaign director noted that he had instead decided to visit Chadian soldiers battling insurgents advancing on the state capital of N’Djamena. Uncertainty still exists over whether he was killed in clashes or during a meeting with the rebel group, or even if he was in fact killed by a rival.
Since gaining independence from French colonizers in 1960, Chad has experienced a post-independence history marked by instability and violence, much of this being due to the division between the mainly Arab-Muslim north and the predominately Christian and animist south. The state suffers from inadequate infrastructure and a great deal of internal conflict. A desert nation three times the size of California, Chad is surrounded on all sides by states also facing immense instability, with Libya to the north, and Nigeria to the south. It was due to these conditions that allowed state leaders, such as Déby, to enjoy a great deal of support from France and the United States despite the repression of his political opponents and various accusations of human rights violations.
As insurgency continues to plague the region as a whole, Chad has played a central role in Africa’s fight against Islamic militants within the region. Its military forces have been key to both the war in the Sahel, a vast stretch of territory to the south of the Sahara, and the fight against Boko Haram and its splinter groups in the Lake Chad region.
The accession to power of Déby’s son Mahamat Idriss Déby, a 37-year-old four-star military general, drew immediate condemnation because it violated the constitution, which specifies that the president of the national assembly, or failing that, the first vice president, should take over when a president dies.
The general is set to govern Chad until elections can be held in late 2022. Chad's civil society groups are calling for a public demonstration, demanding the dissolution of the Transitional Military Council, which is headed by the new leader General Mahamat Idriss Déby. “We are calling on the Chadian population all over the country to take to the streets on Tuesday for a public demonstration, and we will stay on the streets if we are not listened to," said one of the civil society group's leaders, Max Loalngar.
“We place ourselves under the protection of the African Union and the United Nations and ask that mechanisms be urgently set into motion to ensure the protection of citizens, to take charge of the process of comprehensive and inclusive dialogue to build a consensual transition and to create the conditions that guarantee a lasting political handover," Loalngar continued.
Political opponents have denounced the move as a coup d’état given the Chadian Constitution dictates that the president of the National Assembly should become the interim leader until elections are held. French supporters, though, have said that “exceptional circumstances” in Chad justified the move.
France, taking a great interest in the conflict in Chad, has continually attempted to insert itself into the ongoing conflict. France has long relied on Chad, a former colony, as a support base for its own troops and as a strategic partner for operations in the Sahel region. It has had a continuous military presence in N’Djamena since 1986.
Opposition forces have expressed great distaste in the former colonial ruler meddling in state affairs, viewing their interest merely as a means to monarchize Chad once again. Thomas Gassilloud, a French lawmaker who sits on a parliamentary committee focusing on the relationship between France and Chad, said that Déby had long offered stability in a region where that was difficult to find. “Chad is at the crossroads of zones that have faced multiple security crises in recent years: Libya to the north, Niger to the west, and the Central African Republic to the south,” he said, noting that Mr. Déby had studied at the prestigious Paris-based military school that trains senior French Army officers. “France was used to working with Déby, and when it came to military operations in the Sahel, they spoke the same language.”
France’s top politicians paid tribute to an ally they had come to depend upon over decades. France lost a “courageous friend” in President Déby, a spokesman for President Emmanuel Macron said, while the foreign affairs minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, called him “a reliable partner who worked relentlessly for the security of his country and the stability of the Sahel.”
The African Union released a statement that it was “mourning the loss of a champion of Africa’s endeavors to provide a peaceful, secure and stable continent.” Testifying to Congress in Washington on Tuesday, General Stephen Townsend, the top American commander for Africa, said the circumstances surrounding Mr. Déby’s death were very murky. “He’s a retired general, and he has in the past, gone to the front,” General Townsend told the House Armed Services Committee. “We don’t know exactly how he got killed.”
Déby’s death has opened a power vacuum in Chad, waging a great deal of uncertainty in terms of state stability as rebels have vowed to continue their march on the capital of N’Djamena. “Chad’s ability to contribute to regional security initiatives helps reduce instability in the region,” noted Colonel Christopher Karns, a spokesman for the Pentagon’s Africa Command.