Chad President Idriss Deby shot dead at fronline

• Son, General Mahamat Kaka takes over as President
• Transitional period in Chad to last for 18 months

Tony Nwakaegho with Agency Report

Chadian president, Idriss Deby has died, aged 68.

Deby who won 6th term in office at the weekend, died of injuries suffered on the frontline in the Sahel country’s north, where he had gone to visit soldiers battling rebels, an army spokesman said on Tuesday.

Deby, “has just breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield” over the weekend, army spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouna said in a statement read out on state television.

His son, General Mahamat Kaka, has been named interim head of the state, the army spokesman said.

The news came a day after Deby, who came to power in a rebellion in 1990, won a sixth term, as per provisional results released on Monday. Deby took 79.3 percent of the vote in the April 11 presidential election, the results showed.

Deby postponed his victory speech to supporters and instead went to visit Chadian soldiers battling rebels, according to his campaign manager.

The rebel group Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), which is based across the northern frontier with Libya, attacked a border post on Election Day and then advanced hundreds of kilometres south, Aljazeera reported.

Chad’s military spokesman Agouna, told the Reuters news agency that army troops killed more than 300 fighters and captured 150 on Saturday in Kanem province, around 300 kilometres (185 miles) from the capital Ndjamena.

Meanwhile, the military council said on Tuesday that the transitional period in Chad, which was imposed after the death of President Idriss Deby will last for 18 months and also announced the closure of land and air borders.

“The transitional military council ensures national independence, territorial integrity, unity, respect for international agreements and treaties, and also ensures a transition within 18 months,” the council said in a statement, published on the presidential website.

The transitional military council also announced it would dissolve the cabinet and the parliament. “Land and air borders are closed until further notice,” the statement read on.

Apart from that, a nationwide curfew will be imposed from 18:00 p.m. until 05:00 a.m. local time.