General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who has led Chad’s junta for the past three years, is to be sworn in today (Thursday) following an election victory that has been fiercely contested by opposition parties in this north-central African nation.
Deby officially secured 61 percent of the vote in the May 6 election, which international NGOs deemed neither credible nor free. His main rival dismissed the election as a “masquerade.”
In April 2021, a junta of 15 generals proclaimed Deby as the transitional president after his father, the long-standing president Idriss Deby Itno, was killed by rebels. The elder Deby had ruled Chad with an iron fist for 30 years before his assassination.
Today’s swearing-in ceremony marks the end of three years of military rule in Chad, a country vital to the fight against jihadism in Africa’s volatile Sahel region.
Back in 2021, the international community, led by France, quickly endorsed Deby’s leadership. This support came despite France’s recent ousting from other former colonies in the Sahel region, such as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, which have seen military regimes take power.
The investiture ceremony also formalizes what the opposition has criticized as the continuation of the Deby dynasty.
Prime Minister Succes Masra, previously one of Deby’s strongest critics, resigned on Wednesday following his party’s defeat in the election after only four months in office. Masra, an economist who garnered 18.5 percent of the vote, has disputed the election results.
Claiming victory after the first round of voting, Masra faced accusations from the opposition of being a junta puppet. The opposition, which has faced severe repression in Chad, with its key figures barred from the election, has been vocal about the lack of democratic processes.
After Chad’s Constitutional Council rejected Masra’s attempt to annul the election results, he stated that there was “no other national legal recourse” and urged his supporters to “remain mobilized” but “peaceful.”
The political climate in Chad has been further strained by the death of Deby’s cousin, Yaya Dillo Djerou, who was seen as a leading opposition figure. Djerou was killed at point-blank range during an army assault on February 28, according to his party.
The presence of foreign dignitaries at Deby’s investiture will signal the level of international support for the 40-year-old president. French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited N’Djamena in 2021 to pay respects to the late Marshal Deby, is sending his minister for foreign trade and Francophonie, Franck Riester.
Chad, among the poorest nations globally, remains France’s last military stronghold in the Sahel, with 1,000 soldiers stationed there. Macron was one of the few leaders to congratulate Deby on his election win.
Meanwhile, several Sahel nations have pivoted towards Russia, strengthening ties after cutting relations with France. Russian President Vladimir Putin was among the first to congratulate Deby, and the composition of the delegation Moscow sends to N’Djamena for the ceremony will be closely monitored by analysts.