Chad: Last Tribute To Idriss Déby, In The Presence Of Emmanuel Macron

In last tribute is paid this Friday to Idriss Déby who ruled the country with an iron fist for 30 years. The event will take place under the leadership of the Transitional Military Committee headed by his son. it will be in the presence of a dozen heads of state including those of several other Sahelian countries, such as Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, or the president of the Sudanese Sovereign Council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, of Congolese Félix Tshisekedi, current president of the African Union (AU), as well as Frenchman Emmanuel Macron who arrived Thursday evening in N’Djamena, where France has installed the headquarters of Barkhane, its anti-jihadist force in the Sahel.

Macron in N’Djamena and questions

President Macron will be the only Western head of state present at the funeral of Marshal Chad, his strongest ally against the jihadists in the region. After his plane landed on the runway of the military base which houses the headquarters of the French force, Mr. Macron was escorted to the French embassy by armored vehicles from Barkhane, according to an AFP journalist. .

Will the French president set conditions for a democratic transition? Doubting the young Mahamat Idriss Déby? His presence at the ceremony suggests so. Since coming to power by force in 1990, with the help of Paris, Idriss Déby had always been able to count on the former colonial power.

As a reminder, Idriss Déby died Monday at the age of 68 from injuries sustained at the front while leading his troops against rebels. His son, Mahamat Idriss Déby, a 37-year-old corps general, is the regime’s new strongman. He has full powers but has promised new institutions after “free and democratic” elections in a year and a half. For many opponents who have always been repressed by Idriss Déby’s regime, this seizure of power is nothing more than an “institutional coup”.

Chad: to each his own Déby

Real external and internal threats

After Idriss Déby’s death, France has already expressed concern about “the stability and territorial integrity of Chad” on several occasions. “Will the Transitional Military Council ensure the stability and integrity of Chad?” Asked Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister of Foreign Affairs on Thursday, also wondering about its ability to “put implement a democratic process “while respecting its military commitments in the region. The observation and the words are almost the same for Josep Borell, the head of diplomacy of the European Union. “We must help Chad. We must ignore political considerations,” he said Thursday during a visit to Mauritania, before also going to the funeral of Idriss Déby.

The official funeral will take place in the early morning on the Place de la Nation. After the military honors and various speeches, a prayer will be said at the Great Mosque of N’Djamena. Idriss Déby’s remains will then be taken by plane more than a thousand km away, to Amdjarass, a small village adjacent to his hometown of Berdoba, capital of the province of Ennedi East (North-East), near the Sudanese border, where he will be buried alongside his father.

Security challenge

The arrival of heads of state represents a major security challenge for the new regime, still facing a rebellion from Libya which has promised to march on N’Djamena and “categorically” rejects the military transition. The threat could also come from inside the regime, because the seizure of power of the young Mahamat Idriss Déby is sudden and the desires numerous within the clan of the late head of state. The all-powerful Directorate General of Security Services of State Institutions (DGSSIE), until then headed by the new president of the CMT, “risks dividing. They will settle their problems, as they did in the past, by physical elimination attempts, with the implication of armed violence in the capital “, predicts Roland Marchal, researcher at the International Research Center (Ceri) of Sciences Po Paris.