After 30 years in power, Idriss Deby Itno was killed on the front line in a battle against rebels on Monday, just after securing his re-election as president.
The group the government is fighting is called the Front for Change and Concord in Chad, or Fact.
Now, Fact has vowed to take over the capital N'Djamena, after Deby's son, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, was named head of the transitional government.
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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. AP Photo -
N'Djamena, French General Jean Poli meets Chad's Chief of Staff Idriss Deby after a terrorist attack provoking an airplane explosion, April 02, 1984. AFP -
Chadian rebel Idriss Deby, leader of the Chadian Patriotic Salvation Movement, gives a press conference, on december 2, 1990 as he arrives in N'Djamena, December 02, 1990. AFP -
Chad's Head of State Idriss Deby attending a meeting with French President Jacques Chirac as part of his official visit in France, July 3, 1997. AFP -
Idriss Deby watches a rally in N'Djamena on April 15, 2006. Reuters -
A supporter carries a picture of Chad President Idriss Deby during a Peace Process rally in Darfur, in Al Fashir capital of North Darfur on September 7, 2016. Reuters -
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Chad's President Idriss Deby to attend a summit on the situation in the Sahel region in the southern French city of Pau, France, on January 13, 2020. Reuters -
Idriss Deby Itno with his wife Hynda, casts his vote for the presidential election in N'Djamena in May 2006. AFP -
Idriss Deby follows proceedings during the 26th African Union Summit at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on January 31, 2016. EPA -
Idriss Deby Itno speaks during his meeting with the Israeli President (not pictured) at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, Israel, on November 25, 2018. EPA -
Idriss Deby (C) inspects a seized rebel technical in Adre, Chad in December 2006. AFP -
Idriss Deby is seen in Adre, Chad, while supervising the activities of the governamental army in December 2006. AFP -
People drive past a Chad army tank near presidential palace, as fighters from the rebel Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) appeared to be moving toward the capital according to the United States, in N'djamena, Chad April 19, 2021. Reuters -
A vehicle mounted with an anti aircraft gun belonging to the Front pour l’alternance et la concorde au Tchad (FACT) captured following clashes with the Chadian army in Nyze, 50km north east of Zigueye, on April 17, 2021. AFP -
Idriss Deby Itno arrives at the G5 Sahel summit in Pau, southwestern France in January 2020. AP -
Idriss Deby attends a working session of the G5 Sahel summit in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on June 30, 2020. Reuters -
(FILES) In this file photo taken on June 30, 2004 Chadian President Idriss Deby answers to reporters in his palace of Njamena. Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno died on April 20, 2021 from wounds sustained in battle after three decades in power, the army announced. / AFP / Thomas COEX -
Idriss Deby Itno addresses the 69th United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York on September 24, 2014. Reuters
Who are Fact and what do they want?
Fact is a political and military force founded by former politician and Deby critic SG Mahamat Mahdi Ali in March 2016, with the aim of overthrowing the government and seizing power in Chad.
The group is a splinter of the larger armed opposition Union of Forces for Democracy and Development.
Fact accused Deby of presiding over a repressive regime.
Swiss-based armed violence monitoring group Small Arms Survey says Fact is made up of "several hundred men", mostly of Daza ethnicity.
It has strongholds in northern Chad and southern Libya, mostly in the Tibesti Mountains.
The group has been based in Libya and had ties to a western Misratan militia. It made a non-aggression pact with the eastern-based Libyan National Army in 2017, following clashes.
Fact was, at least for some time, more involved in the Libyan conflict – where it appeared to operate as a mercenary force – than as a rebel group fighting the Chad government.
A 2017 report by the UN Panel of Experts on Libya said that Fact was unable to operate on the Chad side of the border.
Calling for Deby's resignation, Fact attacked a military post on the April 11 election day, leading to an armed confrontation with the Chadian army and a swift march towards the capital.
But the military claimed to have checked the rebel advance, saying that on Saturday a rebel column from Libya was “totally decimated”.
It is not possible to verify the claims and the military has not said if these clashes were where Deby was killed.
However, the Fact leader told Radio-France Internationale that the group was making a "strategic retreat".
Before the death of the president was announced, the US and British embassies said they were pulling staff out of the country due to clashes approaching the capital.
Fact criticised the formation of a military council by interim leader Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, son of the dead president.
"We do not recognise any legitimacy in the military and family council. Idriss Deby is deceased, his son replaces him. It is not a dynasty, Chad is a secular republic. The institutional order must be restored," Mahdi Ali told Radio-France Internationale.
Insecurity in Chad
The central African nation has had a long history of rebellions during the 30-year reign of Deby – who himself came to power in a 1990 coup.
In 2008, clashes reached the gate of the presidential palace before Chad's army repelled rebel forces and pursued them east towards the Sudanese border.
Chad, a former French colony, is home to France's military Operation Barkhane, which deploys troops across the continent to fight extremism.
The Chadian military has played a major role in that effort, contributing troops to the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali.
Chadian soldiers also have long battled extremists from the Boko Haram group, which started in north-east Nigeria and spread to neighbouring countries.
In 2019, French armed forces intervened in northern Chad and launched air strikes at an armed group coming in from Libya.
Some 330,000 Chadians have been internally displaced by the clashes, the majority in the volatile Lake Chad region where Boko Haram fighters are most active.
