Idriss Déby
Encyclopedia
General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

 Idriss Déby Itno (born in 1952) is the President of Chad and the head of the Patriotic Salvation Movement
Patriotic Salvation Movement
The Patriotic Salvation Movement is the ruling political party in Chad.After Idriss Déby, an army commander who participated in an unsuccessful plot against President Hissène Habré in 1989, fled to Sudan, he and his supporters, known as the April 1 Movement, operated from Sudan with Libyan backing...

. Déby is of the Bidyat clan of the Zaghawa
Zaghawa
The Zaghawa are an ethnic group of eastern Chad and western Sudan, including Darfur.The Kanemite royal history, the Girgam, refers to the Zaghawa people as the Duguwa. Today, Zaghawa refer to themselves as the Beri, while the name "Zaghawa" comes from the nearby Arab peoples and became better known...

 ethnic group. He added "Itno" to his surname in January 2006.

Rise to power

Déby was born in Fada
Fada
Fada is the capital of the Ennedi Ouest department of Chad, lying in the Ennedi Plateau. It has a population of 23,786 .It is known for the surrounding cave paintings and rock formations, while the Guelta d'Archei and a wood growing in a wadi are local attractions.It is the birthplace of the...

 as the son of a herder. After finishing school he entered the Officers' School in N'Djamena
N'Djamena
N'Djamena is the capital and largest city of Chad. A port on the Chari River, near the confluence with the Logone River, it directly faces the Cameroonian town of Kousséri, to which the city is connected by a bridge. It is also a special statute region, divided in 10 arrondissements. It is a...

. From there he was sent to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 for training, returning to Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...

 in 1976 with a professional pilot certificate. He remained loyal to the army and to President Félix Malloum
Félix Malloum
General Félix Malloum or Félix Malloum Ngakoutou Bey-Ndi was a Chadian politician from the south. He served as an officer in the Chadian Military and as a member of the ruling Chadian Progressive Party . He later became the Chief of Staff with the rank of colonel...

 until central authority crumbled in 1979. Déby tied his fortunes to those of Hissène Habré
Hissène Habré
Hissène Habré , also spelled Hissen Habré, was the leader of Chad from 1982 until he was deposed in 1990.-Early life:...

, one of the chief Chadian warlords. A year after Habré became President in 1982, in exchange for his loyalty, Déby was made commander-in-chief of the army. He distinguished himself in 1984 by destroying pro-Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

n forces in Eastern Chad. In 1985 Habré removed him from his post and sent him to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 to follow a course at the École de Guerre; on his return he was made chief military advisor to the Presidency. In 1987 he confronted Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

n forces on the field, adopting tactics that inflicted heavy losses to enemy forces. A rift emerged in 1989 between Habré and Déby over the increasing power of the Presidential Guard. Habré accused Déby of preparing a coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

, motivating Déby to flee to Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

.

According to Douglas Farah's article Harvard for Tyrants, Déby is an alumni member of Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...

's training center.

He moved to Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

 and formed the Patriotic Salvation Movement, an insurgent group, supported by Libya and Sudan, which started operations against Habré in October 1989. He unleashed a decisive attack on 10 November 1990, and on 2 December Déby's troops marched unopposed into the capital, N'Djaména
N'Djamena
N'Djamena is the capital and largest city of Chad. A port on the Chari River, near the confluence with the Logone River, it directly faces the Cameroonian town of Kousséri, to which the city is connected by a bridge. It is also a special statute region, divided in 10 arrondissements. It is a...

.

Political career since 1990

After three months of provisional government, on 28 February 1991, a charter was approved for Chad with Déby as president. A new constitution was approved by referendum in March 1996, followed by a presidential election
Chadian presidential election, 1996
Presidential election were held in Chad on 2 June 1996, with a second round on 3 July. This was the first multiparty presidential election in the history of Chad since its independence. It occurred at the end of a long transitional process and was repeatedly delayed...

 in June. Déby received first place in the first round but fell short of a majority; he was then elected president in the second round, held in July, with 69% of the vote. He was re-elected in the May 2001 presidential election
Chadian presidential election, 2001
A presential election was held in Chad on May 20, 2001. President Idriss Déby stood as a candidate for a second term. He obtained the support of a former opponent, Lol Mahamat Choua, leader of the Rally for Democracy and Progress ....

, winning in the first round with 63.17% of the vote, according to official results, although international observers noted irregularities in the election process. In June 2005, a successful referendum
Chadian constitutional referendum, 2005
On 6 June 2005 the Chadian voters were called to pronounce themselves through a referendum on the revision of the Constitution originally approved on 31 March 1996....

 was held to eliminate a two-term constitutional limit, which enabled Déby to run again in 2006. He was a candidate in the 2006 presidential election
Chadian presidential election, 2006
A presidential election took place in Chad on May 3, 2006. A 2005 constitutional referendum made it possible for President Idriss Déby to run for a third term; having come to power in December 1990, he previously won elections in 1996 and 2001...

, held May 3, which was greeted with an opposition boycott. According to official results Déby won the election with 64.67% of the vote; this was revised downward from the initially announced result of 77.6%.

Rebellion and tensions with Sudan

Since 1990 at least seven national liberation "armies" have sprung up in various areas of Chad to challenge Déby's rule. In 1992, the French sent in troops to help suppress the armed gangs, known as N'Katha Zulu, who were operating on the Sudan border. In October 1993, Abbas Koty, a former member of Deby's government, attempted a military coup which failed.

A rebellion began in the east of the country in late 2005, accompanied by tensions with Sudan. An attempted coup d'état, involving the shooting down of Déby's plane, was foiled in March 2006. In mid-April 2006, there was fighting with rebels at N'Djaména, although the fighting soon subsided with government forces still in control of the capital. Déby subsequently broke ties with Sudan, accusing it of backing the rebels, and said that the May 2006 election would still take place.

Déby was sworn in for another term in office on August 8, 2006. Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir
Omar al-Bashir
Lieutenant General Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir is the current President of Sudan and the head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister...

 attended Déby's inauguration, and the two leaders agreed to restore diplomatic relations on this occasion.

After Déby's re-election, several rebel groups broke apart. Déby was in Abéché
Abéché
-Demographics:Demographic evolution:-References:...

 from 11 September to 21 September 2006, flying in a helicopter to personally oversee attacks on Rally of Democratic Forces
Rally of Democratic Forces (rebel group)
The Rally of Democratic Forces is a Chadian rebel group led by Timane Erdimi. It is currently allied to the United Front for Democratic Change rebel group and both are dedicated to overthrowing Erdimi's uncle, the current Chadian President Idriss Déby and his administration...

 rebels.

The rebellion in the east continued, and rebels reached N'Djamena
Battle of N'Djamena (2008)
The Battle of N'Djamena began on February 2, 2008 when Chadian rebel forces opposed to Chadian President Idriss Déby entered N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, after a three-day advance through the country. The rebels were initially successful, taking a large part of the city and attacking the heavily...

 on February 2, 2008, with fighting occurring inside the city. After days of fighting, the government remained in control of N'Djamena. Speaking at a press conference on February 6, Déby said that his forces had defeated the rebels, whom he described as "mercenaries directed by Sudan", and that his forces were in "total control" of the city as well as the whole country.

Petroleum disagreement

At the end of August 2006, Déby made international news after calling for his country to have a 60 percent stake in its oil output after receiving "crumbs" from foreign companies running the industry. He said Chevron
Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining,...

 and Petronas
Petronas
PETRONAS, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company that was founded on August 17, 1974. Wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with the entire oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and...

 were refusing to pay taxes totalling $486.2 million. Recently, Chad passed a World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

-backed oil revenues law that required most of its oil revenue to be allocated to health, education and infrastructure projects. The World Bank had previously frozen an oil revenue account in a dispute over how Chad spent its oil profits.

Corruption

In October 2006, Chad was placed at the top of the list of the world's most corrupt nations by Forbes magazine for "what may turn out to be the single most piggish use of philanthropic funds". Proceeds from a project, funded in part by the World Bank, to build an oil pipeline through Chad and Cameroon were supposed to have been ring-fenced by Déby's government to assist and feed "the desperately poor people of these nations". Instead, some $30 million was diverted to buy arms to keep in power the government of President Idriss Déby.

Family

Déby has been married several times and has at least a dozen children. He married Hinda (b. 1977) in September 2005. Reputed for her beauty, this marriage attracted much attention in Chad, and due to tribal affiliations it was seen by many as a strategic means for Déby to bolster his support while under pressure from rebels. Hinda is a member of the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency, serving as Special Secretary.

On July 2, 2007, Déby's son Brahim
Brahim Déby
Brahim Déby Itno was the son of current Chadian President Idriss Déby.Brahim attended the University of Ottawa in Canada as a foreign exchange student and graduated in 2004 with a degree in business administration...

 (age 27) was found dead in the parking garage of his apartment near Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. According to the autopsy report, he had likely been asphyxiated by white powder from a fire extinguisher. A murder inquiry has been launched by the French police. Brahim had been sacked as presidential advisor the year before, after being convicted of possessing drugs and weapons. Rebel leader Makaila Nguebla attributes the defection of many Chadian government leaders to the rebellion to Brahim's conduct: "He is at the root of all the frustration. He used to slap government ministers, senior Chadian officials were humiliated by Déby's son."
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