15 Generals Appointed To Ensure Transition In Chad After Death Of President Deby

Chadian interim head of state General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno has chosen fourteen other generals to compose the transitional military council (CMT), which was established Tuesday following the death of former Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno.

Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, whom Chadians are already starting to call MIDI (like his father, Marshal Idriss Deby Itno), has chosen offcials of defense and security forces in place to ensure the transition.

Among them, there are General Souleyman Abakar Adoum, defense minister in the last government dissolved on Tuesday; General Mahamat Ismail Chaibo, former head of intelligence and minister of territorial administration; General Abakar Abdelkerim Daoud, chief of the general staff of the armed forces; General Djimadoum Tiraina, director general of the gendarmerie; General Youssouf Mahamat Itno, director general of the national police; General Tahir Erda Tairo, Director General of Military Intelligence.

Within the CMT, there are also General Bichara Issa Djadallah, chief of staff of ex-president and twice defense minister; General Oki Mahamat Yaya Dagache, defense and security adviser to Deby; as well as General Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim, former defense minister.

General Azem Bermandoa Agouna, spokesperson for the army, also sits on the CMT. It was him who announced on Tuesday on national television the death of Deby, as a result of injuries received during fighting against rebels from Libya.

All the fifteen generals of the CMT, most of whom were alongside ex-president Deby during the battle in western Chadian province of Kanem (some 300 km north of the capital N’Djamena), have responsibility of ensuring the security of the country and to conduct an eighteen-month transition leading to new elections.

According to a statement of the CMT, the National Assembly and the government are dissolved, and a transitional government will be put in place. A transitional charter will be promulgated to replace the constitution.

The CMT has also instituted a curfew ranging from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. throughout the country, and borders are closed until further notice.

A national mourning of 14 days is decreed throughout the territory from Tuesday. The funeral of the ex-president is scheduled for Friday in his birthplace Amdjarass, in the north of Chad. (XINHUA)