Just In: Chad President, Idriss Deby shot dead, days after he was re-eletected

Chad President, Idriss Deby, who won a 6th term on Monday, has died of gunshot injuries suffered on the frontline, an army spokesman said.

The 68-year-old son of a herder was one of the longest-serving leaders in Africa, died of injuries suffered on the frontline in the Sahel country’s north, where he had gone to visit soldiers battling rebels over the weekend. The army said Deby had been commanding his army at the weekend as it battled against rebels who had launched a major incursion into the north of the country on election day. The army said a military council led by the late president’s 37-year-old son Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, a four-star general, would replace him. The shock announcement came a day after Deby, who came to power in a rebellion in 1990, won a sixth term, as per provisional results released on Monday. Deby took 79.3 percent of the vote in the April 11 presidential election, the results showed.

Read more details at Aljazeera

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