Breaking: Chad repressive president Idriss Deby dies on frontline after after three decades in power, Mahamat his son take over

Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, 37, the son of Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno, is seen during a military broadcast announcing the death of his father on state television, April 20, 2021.

Deby was born in 1952 in northeastern Chad, the son of a shepherd in what was then part of the colonial French Equatorial Africa empire. He started his military career in Chad's capital, now known as N'Djamena, before earning a fighter pilot's license in France in 1976.

Déby took control of Chad in an armed rebellion in 1990. 

He was a long-time ally of France and other Western powers in the battle against many liberation  Tchadien groups that oppose his rules in the Sahel region of Africa. 

France had many extensive bases in the Sahel region counter so-called terrorism operations in N’Djamena. The Chadian government had announced in February the deployment of 1,200 troops to complement 5,100 French soldiers in already the area.

On Saturday, the US State Department ordered the departure of non-emergency US government employees from its embassy in the capital N’Djamena, fearing political unrest and violence.

Reports from N’Djamena suggest parliament has been dissolved and the government replaced by a transitional military council led by Déby’s 37-year-old son, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, a general.

The Chadian army announced late Sunday that it had killed more than 300 rebels in the northern part of the Central African country. 

The rebels that launched the offensive against the regime rejected the transition government led by one of Deby’s sons, Mahamat and vowed to pursue the offensive.

The rebels are a group called  FACT) Front for Change and Concord in Chad. Fighting started a day after the April 11 presidential elections.  

Many news world outlets reported on the matter,.