Less than 24 hours after the death of the newly re-elected President of Chad Idriss Déby was announced, his son, General Mahamat Kaka has been named the interim head of State.
He is expected to pilot the state’s administration until a substantive president is elected.
The development was confirmed by the army spokesman, General Azem Bermandoa Agouna in a statement read out on the national television.
The new appointment was announced shortly after Agouna disclosed that Déby died of wounds he received while commanding his army in battles against insurgents in the North.
“General Mahamat Kaka, the son of the deceased Chadian leader, has been named interim head of the state,” the army spokesman told Reuters news agency
The shocking news of deby came a day after the Chadian leader who came to power in a rebellion in 1990 was declared winner of the presidential election on Monday.
He reportedly garnered 79.3 per cent of the vote in the April 11 presidential election, the results showed.
The president was said to have postponed his victory speech to supporters and instead opted to visit Chadian soldiers battling rebels, according to his campaign manager.
The rebel group, Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), which is based across the northern frontier with Libya, attacked a border post on election day and then advanced hundreds of kilometres south.
But it suffered a setback over the weekend.
Chad’s military spokesman Agouna, told the Reuters news agency that army troops killed more than 300 fighters and captured 150 on Saturday in Kanem province, around 300 kilometres from the capital Ndjamena.
