Monday 26 Apr 2021 @ 11:33
Chatham House
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Chad facing hard choices as anxious allies ill-prepared

EXPERT COMMENT

The sudden end of the 30-year rule of President Idriss Déby Itno with his unexpected death leaves massive uncertainty hanging over the future of Chad itself.

Chad’s ‘Après-Déby’ moment has been the subject of intense speculation and discrete scenario-planning for years by the country’s external partners and stakeholders as no-one seriously entertained the possibility he would ever step down peacefully.

But such prior reflection did not cushion the shock in N’Djaména and foreign capitals when the military announced his death on the battlefield – as his army confronted a rebel incursion from across Chad’s Libyan border – immediately dissolved the National Assembly, and declared 18 months of rule by a Transitional Military Council headed by Déby’s own son Mahamat.

With Déby gone, the future of Chad is in doubt, as well as its role as a military actor across a huge region of Central and Sahelian Africa, as a key partner for Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger in the struggle to contain Boko Haram, and as a strategic ally for France.

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Original article link: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/04/chad-facing-hard-choices-anxious-allies-ill-prepared

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