Idriss Déby

Idriss Déby Itno (18 June 1952 – 20 April 2021) was a Chadian politician and military officer who was the president of Chad from 1990 until his death in 2021 during the Northern Chad offensive.

His term of office of more than 30 years makes him Chad's longest-serving president.

Déby was a member of the Bidayat clan of the Zaghawa ethnic group.

Déby was born on 18 June 1952, in the village of Berdoba, approximately 190 kilometers from Fada in northern Chad.

His father was a herdsman of the Bidayat clan of the Zaghawa community.

After attending the Qur'anic School in Tiné, Déby studied at the École Française in Fada and at the Franco-Arab school (Lycée Franco-Arabe) in Abéché.

He also attended the Lycée Jacques Moudeina in Bongor and held a bachelor's degree in science.

After finishing school, he entered the Officers' School in N'Djamena.

From there he was sent to France for training, returning to Chad in 1976 with a professional pilot certificate.

He remained loyal to the army and President Félix Malloum even after Chad's central authority crumbled in 1979.

He returned from France in February 1979 and found Chad had become a battleground for many armed groups.

Déby tied his fortunes to those of Hissène Habré, one of the chief Chadian warlords.

A high-ranking commander of President Hissène Habré's military during the 1980s, Déby played important roles in the Toyota War which led to Chad's victory during the Libyan-Chadian conflict.

He was later purged by Habré after being suspected of plotting a coup, and was forced into exile in Libya.

A year after Habré became president in 1982, Déby was made commander-in-chief of the army.

He distinguished himself in 1984 by destroying pro-Libyan forces in eastern Chad.

In 1985, Habré sent him to Paris to follow a course at the École de Guerre and upon his return in 1986, he was made chief military advisor to the president.

In 1987, he confronted Libyan forces on the field, with the help of France in the so-called "Toyota War", adopting tactics that inflicted heavy losses on enemy forces.

During the war, he also led a raid on Maaten al-Sarra Air Base in Kufrah, in Libyan territory.

A rift emerged on 1 April 1989 between Habré and Déby over the increasing power of the Presidential Guard.

According to Human Rights Watch, Habré was found responsible for "widespread political killings, systematic torture, and thousands of arbitrary arrests", as well as ethnic purges when it was perceived that group leaders could pose a threat to his rule, including many of Déby's Zaghawa ethnic group who supported the government.

Increasingly paranoid, Habré accused Déby, minister of the interior Mahamat Itno, and commander in chief of the Chadian army Hassan Djamous of preparing a coup d'état.

Déby fled first to Darfur, then to Libya, where he was welcomed by Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli.

Itno and Djamous were arrested and killed.

Since all three were ethnic Zaghawa, Habré started a targeted campaign against the group which saw hundreds seized, tortured, and imprisoned.

Dozens died in detention or were summarily executed.

He took power by leading a coup d'état against Habré in December 1990.

Déby relocated to Sudan in 1989 and formed the Patriotic Salvation Movement, an insurgent group, supported by Libya and Sudan, which started operations against Habré, and on 2 December 1990 Déby's troops marched unopposed into N'Djamena in a successful coup, ousting Habré.

Despite introducing a multi-party system in 1992 after several decades of one-party rule under his predecessors, throughout his presidency, his Patriotic Salvation Movement was the dominant party.

Déby won presidential elections in 1996 and 2001, and after term limits were eliminated he won again in 2006, 2011, 2016, and 2021.

During the Second Congo War, Déby briefly ordered military intervention on the side of the Congolese government but soon withdrew when his forces were accused of looting and human rights abuses.

He survived various rebellions and coup attempts against his own rule, including a rebellion led by his former defense minister Youssouf Togoïmi from 1998 to 2002 as well as a civil war from 2005–2010 provoked by the refugee crisis of the War in Darfur in neighboring Sudan.

Several international media sources have described Déby as authoritarian.

During his three decades in office, Chad experienced democratic backsliding and widespread corruption, including cronyism, embezzlement and a deeply entrenched patronage system.

In the early 2000s, oil was discovered in Chad, and Déby made petroleum production the driving force of the country's economy.

In 2016, the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) was established with the goal of overthrowing Déby's government.

In April 2021, FACT initiated the Northern Chad offensive; Déby was injured on 19 April while commanding troops on the frontline fighting the militants and died the following day.

In 2016, Habré was convicted of war crimes by a specially created international tribunal in Senegal.

Déby gave the Libyans detailed information about CIA operations in Chad.

Gaddafi offered Déby military aid to seize power in Chad in exchange for Libyan prisoners of war.