Africa
Chadian President Idriss Deby dies on frontline, rebels vow to keep fighting
Deby came to power in a rebellion in 1990 and is one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.
Chad’s President Idriss Deby Itno has died on the battlefield after three decades in power, the army announced on state television on Tuesday. The rebels that launched the offensive against the regime rejected the transition government led by one of Deby’s sons, and vowed to pursue the offensive.
“We categorically reject the transition,” said Kingabe Ogouzeimi de Tapol, spokesman for the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) on Tuesday. “We intend to pursue the offensive.”
The stunning announcement about the president’s death came just hours after electoral officials had declared Deby, 68, the winner of the April 11 presidential election, paving the way for him to stay in power for six more years.
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.
The army said a military council led by the late president’s 37-year-old son Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, a four-star general, would replace him.
Deby’s campaign said on Monday that he was headed to the frontlines to join troops battling “terrorists“.
Four Star General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, 37, son of the slain Chadian President Idriss Déby, seen here in N’djamena on April 11, 2021, will will replace his father as head of a military council, the army announced on April 20, 2021. © Marco Longari, AFP
The circumstances of Deby’s death could not immediately be independently confirmed due to the remote location. It was not known why the president would have visited the area or participated in ongoing clashes with the rebels who opposed his rule.
Rebels based across the northern frontier in Libya attacked a border post on election day and then advanced hundreds of kilometres south across the desert.
‘A courageous friend’, says France
France on Tuesday paid tribute to Deby as a “courageous friend” and “great soldier”, while urging stability and a peaceful transition in the African country after his shock death.
“Chad is losing a great soldier and a president who has worked tirelessly for the security of the country and the stability of the region for three decades,” the office of President Emmanuel Macron said in statement, hailing Deby as a “courageous friend” of France.
The statement also emphasised France’s insistence on the “stability and territorial integrity” of Chad as it faces a push by rebel forces towards its capital, N’Djamena.
Defence Minister Florence Parly praised Deby as an “essential ally in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel” while emphasising that the fight against jihadist insurgents “will not stop”.
One of Africa’s longest-serving leaders
Deby came to power in a rebellion in 1990 and is one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.
Although ruling Chad with an iron fist, he was a key ally in the West’s anti-jihadist campaign in the troubled Sahel region.
On Monday, the army had claimed a “great victory” in its battle against the rebels from neighbouring Libya, saying it had killed 300 fighters, with the loss of five soldiers in its own ranks during eight days of combat.
Deby was a herder’s son from the Zaghawa ethnic group who took the classic path to power through the army, and relished the military culture.
His latest election victory – with almost 80 percent of the vote – had never been in doubt, with a divided opposition, boycott calls, and a campaign in which demonstrations were banned or dispersed.
Deby had campaigned on a promise of bringing peace and security to the region, but his pledges were undermined by the rebel incursion.
The government had sought Monday to assure concerned residents that the offensive was over.
There had been panic in some areas of N’Djamena on Monday after tanks were deployed along the city’s main roads, an AFP journalist reported.
The tanks were later withdrawn apart from a perimeter around the president’s office, which is under heavy security during normal times.
“The establishment of a security deployment in certain areas of the capital seems to have been misunderstood,” government spokesman Cherif Mahamat Zene had said on Twitter on Monday.
“There is no particular threat to fear.”
However, the US embassy in N’Djamena had on Saturday ordered non-essential personnel to leave the country, warning of possible violence in the capital. Britain also urged its nationals to leave.
France’s embassy said in an advisory to its nationals in Chad that the deployment was a precaution and there was no specific threat to the capital.
‘Expect things to get messy’
Douglas Yates, a professor in African Studies at the American Graduate School in Paris, told FRANCE 24 that Deby’s death had come as a total surprise.
“Two days ago news had come out from the US embassy that they were evacuating personnel because there were rebels marching on the capital, and frankly the thought was ‘(Deby) will defeat them’, because he has systematically defeated every attempted coup before now.”
Yates said that although Deby was hardly known to be a great democrat, “he was a real soldier and in some ways, this was a worthy death for him. To die involved in the battle was better for him I think than to die in his bed from Covid.”
The professor said much of Chad’s unrest stems from Deby’s own people in the east with discontent rising over Deby not distributing enough oil wealth to them.
“Frankly, there’s probably not enough oil wealth to go around to everyone, but basically there were people who were unhappy, who felt like they were not getting their share and that’s been a repeated pattern in attempted coups.”
On the issue of Deby’s replacement, Yates said: “Expect things to get messy during the transition.”
“He had been in power so long, and eliminating any rivals and imprisoning his democratic opposition. What you have [now] is a large number of people who would like to be the president of Chad rather than one unified opposition leader.”
“Like Napoleon had said: ‘After me, the flood.’ And certainly after Idriss Deby, the flood.”
Global Construction Review, the online media outlet of the international organization The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), reported that Chinese company China Light Industry Nanning Design Engineering has finished building the largest cocoa bean factory and warehouse in Côte d’Ivoire (the Ivory Coast). The facility is located in the African country’s largest city and its former capital, Abidjan. (Note: This is the second cocoa plant built by the Chinese company in Côte d’Ivoire; the other is located in the port city of San-Pédro.)
According to the South China Morning Post , the Chinese government paid US $200 million to build the new plant in Abidjan and “will be repaid in cocoa beans” — 40 percent of the output of the two plants will be given to China to repay its loan.
The Ivory Coast is the world’s largest cocoa bean producer, producing more than 2 million tonnes a year, accounting for approximately 40 percent of global cocoa production and exports. Cocoa beans is the country’s major export product: in 2022, the Ivory Coast exported US$3.33 billion in cocoa beans, with nearly half going to the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United States.
[NOTE: A tonne equals 2204 lbs. or 1000 kilograms, whereas a ton, the more commonly used metric in America, equals 2000 lbs or about 907 kilograms.]
Kristy Leissle, founder and CEO of the African Cocoa Marketplace, said: “Buyers everywhere are struggling to secure cocoa supply, and if 50,000 metric tonnes are now going to China instead of Europe or North America, chocolate makers in those regions will feel the loss.” (Chocolate’s main ingredient is cocoa beans.)
Each of the new cocoa bean plants in the Ivory Coast will have an annual processing capacity of 50,000 tonnes, and they will together be able to store 300,000 tonnes.
Africa
PeacePro Urges Djibouti to Evacuate Foreign Military Bases as France Loses Last Military Base in Ivory Coast
The Foundation for Peace Professionals (PeacePro) has called on the government of Djibouti to take immediate steps toward initiating the evacuation of all foreign military bases from its territory. This appeal follows France’s official withdrawal from its last military base in Ivory Coast, marking another significant step in the ongoing demilitarization of Africa.
In a statement issued by PeacePro’s Executive Director, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, the organization emphasized the need for African nations to reclaim full sovereignty over their security affairs. Hamzat noted that Djibouti, which currently hosts military bases from multiple foreign powers—including the United States, China, France, and Japan—should take proactive steps in line with the growing movement of African nations rejecting external military presence.
“We commend Ivory Coast for this decisive move, which strengthens Africa’s sovereignty and independence in security matters. Djibouti must now follow suit and reconsider its role as a hub for foreign military operations,” Hamzat stated.
PeacePro has been leading an aggressive campaign for the demilitarization of Africa, setting a target to achieve at least 80% reduction of foreign military bases by the end of 2025. Hamzat noted that the closure of French bases in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, and now Ivory Coast is a testament to the success of this movement.
Djibouti, located at the strategic Horn of Africa, remains one of the most militarized territories on the continent due to its hosting of multiple foreign forces, often under the justification of counterterrorism and maritime security. However, PeacePro insists that African nations should prioritize self-reliance in defense and security matters rather than depend on external forces.
Recall that PeacePro had recently condemned the United States’ proposal to bomb alleged terrorist camps across Africa, urging African governments to reject the plan. The organization argued that previous U.S. military interventions have escalated crises rather than resolving them.
As momentum builds across Africa for military independence, PeacePro vows to intensify its advocacy in 2025, ensuring that more countries take concrete action toward closing foreign bases and strengthening indigenous security frameworks.
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The United States government funds HIV prevention, treatment and research programmes across the world but especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
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US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on 20 January that halts foreign aid for 90 days.
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The order, which is not clearly worded, has left in doubt the future of many life-saving HIV programmes in Africa.
The sudden decision by United States President Donald Trump to halt and review all foreign aid for 90 days could be devastating for HIV programmes in African countries. After Trump’s inauguration on 20 January, he signed numerous executive orders. One of these suspends aid to “foreign countries and implementing non-governmental organisations, international organisations, and contractors” pending review for whether it aligns with “American interests and … values”.
The order said, “no further [US] foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States”.
Foreign aid includes the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR. PEPFAR has saved millions of lives since it was launched by former president George W. Bush in 2003.
PEPFAR statistics show that at the end of 2024, it was providing life-saving antiretroviral treatment to nearly 21-million people across 55 countries, many of them in sub-Saharan Africa. PEPFAR is also delivering pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) — which stops people from contracting HIV — to about 2.5 million people. In 2024, PEPFAR provided HIV testing to about 84-million people. It funds HIV treatment and intervention in Uganda, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and many others.
South Africa has about 5.6-million people on antiretroviral treatment. The medicines themselves are paid for by the South African government, but PEPFAR funds some of the staff at some ARV programmes. It also funds much of the prevention and information effort, including ARV user clubs, medical circumcision and public messaging.
South Africa does leading research on HIV and TB. Much of this is funded by the US National Institutes of Health. It’s unclear what the future status of this funding is.
It’s also unclear what the status is of money that has been committed. For example, some programmes get monthly tranches based on contracts that have already been signed. At least one project manager we spoke to said he wasn’t sure if commitments for February onwards would be arriving, and US government representatives who he deals with are themselves unsure.
This uncertainty is due to this phrase in the executive order, “shall immediately pause new obligations and disbursements”. It’s unclear if already-committed disbursements are affected.
Professor Linda-Gail Bekker, an infectious disease scientist at the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at UCT, said that it’s unclear whether the PEPFAR funding will be reduced or stopped but that the outcome in African countries could be “disastrous”.
Bekker said that HIV treatment “doesn’t stand still” and that treatment, PrEP, and quality healthcare have to keep on getting to people.
Bekker also said that other countries in Africa are far more dependent on PEPFAR funding than South Africa. For example, Malawi, which has a minimal health budget.
“There is no doubt our own national governments need to step up. We know there needs to be more self-reliance,” she said, but added that the sudden stop of donor funding can be “disastrous”.
A study from 2024 looking at the rate of mortality amongst South African adults who experienced interruption in antiretroviral treatment, shows that interrupting antiretroviral treatment leads to much greater risk of death.
Over the years, Bekker says, PEPFAR funding has also gradually transitioned from where there was an emergency situation, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the early 2000s, to helping countries’ health systems cope.
PEPFAR allocations in Malawi for 2024 and 2025 are $180-million and $178-million respectively. It is one of two of the biggest funders of HIV interventions in Malawi, along with the Global Fund, according to the National Aids Commission (NAC) of Malawi. In a recent strategic plan, the NAC noted that, “There is an urgent need to sustain and accelerate the national response between 2020 and 2025 in order to put Malawi on the path towards ending AIDS as a public health threat in Malawi by 2030.”
It is unclear how Trump’s order to pause and review foreign aid will affect PEPFAR in the future. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) media office did not respond to questions by the time of publication.
Trump also issued an executive order withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organisation (WHO). According to Reuters there is a 12-month notice period for the US, the WHO’s largest funder, to leave the organisation and stop all financial contributions to its work.
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