France defends Chad military takeover to ensure stability

On Apr 22, 2021

France’s Foreign Minister on Thursday defended a military takeover in Chad despite objections from the country’s political opposition.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said it was necessary for security amid “exceptional circumstances”.
The son of Chad’s slain leader Idriss Deby took over as President and Armed Forces Commander on Wednesday and dissolved the government and parliament as rebel forces threatened to march on the capital.
Under the constitution, the speaker of the National Assembly should have become interim president, but after the military had already shut down parliament, speaker Haroun Kabadi said in a statement that “given the military, security and political context”, he had agreed to a military transition “with full lucidity”
Jean-Yves Le Drian said Kabadi’s position justified the military taking control.
“There are exceptional circumstances. Logically, it should be Mr Kabadi…but he refused because of the exceptional security reasons that were needed to ensure the stability of the country,” Le Drian said.
Chad’s political opposition has denounced the military’s takeover, as did an army general who said he spoke for many officers. Labour unions also called for a workers’ strike.
Idriss Deby was killed on the frontlines of a battle against rebels who had invaded from the north. He was nonetheless a lynchpin in France’s security strategy in Africa during his over 30 years of leadership.
Terrorism fight
France has about 5,100 troops based across the region as part of international operations to fight Islamist militants, including its main base in N’Djamena.
Any instability in Chad, which has the region’s best-trained and most battled-hardened troops, would harm efforts to fight Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin and groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State in the Sahel.
Deby’s son, General Mahamat Idriss Deby, said on Wednesday the army wanted to return power to a civilian government and hold free and democratic elections in 18 months.
However, the rebels, the Libyan-based Front for Change and Concord in Chad, a group formed by dissident army officers, rejected the military’s plan and said on Wednesday that a pause in hostilities they are observing to give time for Deby to be buried would end at midnight.

Edited by Olajumoke Adeleke