Chad’s President Marshal Idriss Déby has died of injuries suffered on the frontline, while fighting rebels Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) in the north of the Sahel country, an army spokesman, General Azem Bermandoa Agouna, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The news came a day after Deby won a sixth term, as per provisional election results released on Monday.
The 68-year-old Deby, who came to power in a rebellion in 1990, took 79.3 per cent of the vote in the April 11 election, the results showed. The Chadian politician has been in power since then.
General Mahamat Kaka, the son of the deceased Chadian leader, has been named interim head of the state, the army spokesman said.