The Chadian Army, on Tuesday, announced the 37-year-old son, of the late President, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, as the new leader of the country.
The late President’s son is a four-star general of the Chadian Army.
Idriss Deby died while visiting troops on the front line of a fight against northern rebels, an army spokesman said on Tuesday, the day after Deby was declared the winner of a sixth term in office.
Deby, 68, “has just breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield” over the weekend, army spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouna said in a statement read out on state television.
Deby’s campaign said on Monday that he was headed to the frontlines to join troops battling “terrorists”.
According to AFP, rebels based across the northern frontier in Libya attacked a border post on election day and then advanced hundreds of kilometres south across the desert.
Deby came to power in a rebellion in 1990 and was, until his death, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.
