French President Emmanuel Macron attends a video conference at the Climate Summit at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France on Thursday, April 22, 2021. – Ian Langsdon / AP / SIPA
The French head of state Emmanuel Macron arrived this Thursday evening in Chad where he will attend the funeral of the late President Idriss Déby Itno this Friday, killed at the front by rebels, according to the army, noted an AFP journalist .
His plane landed on the runway of the Adji Kosseï military base in N’Djamena, which houses the headquarters of Barkhane, the French anti-jihadist force in the Sahel, whose staff is based in the Chadian capital. Emmanuel Macron was escorted to the French embassy by armored vehicles from Barkhane, another AFP journalist reported.
Marshal Déby, who ruled Chad with an iron fist for 30 years and a key partner of the West in the fight against jihadists in the Sahel, died Monday at the age of 68 from injuries received at the front in the north of the country, where he had gone in person to command his troops’ offensive against rebels, according to the army.
The funeral celebrated on Friday
One of his sons, Mahamat Idriss Déby, a 37-year-old four-star general, was immediately proclaimed President of the Republic at the head of a military junta of 15 generals for an 18-month “transition”, they promised, before “free and democratic elections”.
The funeral will be celebrated Friday in N’Djamena, before his burial in his native region in the northeast, near the Sudanese border.
On Tuesday, the French presidency reacted to the announcement of his death by indicating that France was losing “a courageous friend” and by stressing the importance of a “peaceful transition” in Chad. Paris “expresses its firm attachment to the stability and territorial integrity of Chad,” a press release from the presidency said.