After Winning Sixth Term In Office, Chadian President Idris Derby Dies

Chadian President, Idris Deby, has reportedly died from an injury sustained from the warfront in a fight against rebels.

Deby won a sixth term, provisional election results showed, as the army said it had beaten back a column of fighters advancing on the capital, Ndjamena.

The 68-year-old Deby, who came to power in a rebellion in 1990, took 79.3 percent of the vote in the April 11 election, the results showed on Monday.

Top opposition leaders boycotted the vote.

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Deby was expected to give a victory speech to supporters but his campaign director, Mahamat Zen Bada, said he had instead gone to visit Chadian soldiers on the front lines where he was killed.

“The candidate would have liked to have been here to celebrate … but right now, he is alongside our valiant defence and security forces to fight the terrorists threatening our territory,” Zen Bada told reporters on Monday.

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.

More details later