Chad: President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno now marshal

The current president is the second person in Chad after his father to receive cape, saber and sticks, the attributes of a marshal.

For the occasion, a session of the National Transitional Council was held at the presidential palace. This assembly, dominated by the ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement which had voted by a large majority for the president's accession to the title of marshal, must be replaced at the end of legislative elections scheduled for December 29 and boycotted by the opposition.

Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno was “elevated to the dignity of marshal for services rendered to the nation and the numerous military victories won inside and outside the country”, according to the resolution adopted three weeks before the legislative and local elections. , the first since 2011.

His father Idriss Déby Itno was himself elevated to the rank of marshal in 2020 following a victorious offensive that he led against the jihadist group Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region. This soldier, accustomed to commanding field operations, led Chad for 30 years, before being killed at the front by rebels in 2021.

The son, then a general, took power with the support of a junta which proclaimed him “president of the Transitional Military Council”, then “president of the transition” acting as head of state, before modify the constitution and be legitimized by the ballot boxes last May, during a contested election.

This 40-year-old soldier also launched an offensive against Boko Haram at the end of October, after the bloody attack on a garrison on an island in Lake Chad.

He personally led air and ground operations for around two weeks, with regular updates broadcast on the presidency's Facebook site, showing him in military uniform.

After his departure, around fifteen soldiers, including high-ranking officers, were killed in an ambush by the jihadists. After their funeral, no information was released on the aftermath of the operations.

Since then, the Head of State has decided to suspend the military agreements which have linked Chad and France since the end of colonization, denouncing “obsolete” texts.

A first unit of 120 French soldiers left Chad on Friday noon, 10 days after the departure of the Mirage 2000 fighters stationed by Paris in this desert country, the last in the Sahel to house French forces.