Chad President Idriss Deby Dies | 21 Apr 2021

Why in News

Chad’s President Idriss Deby has been killed on the frontline against rebels in the north.

• He was battling rebels belonging to the group 'FACT (the Front for Change and Concord in Chad)'.

Key Points

• About Chad’s President:
  
  • The news of his death came only the day after he was proclaimed the winner of a presidential election that had given him a sixth term in office.
  • He had been ruling Chad since 1990, taking power on the back of a coup.
    
    • His rebel forces overthrew then-President Hissene Habre, who was later convicted of human rights abuses at an international tribunal in Senegal.
  • Deby was a major French ally in the fight against Islamic extremism in Africa, hosting the base for the French military Operation Barkhane and supplying critical troops to the peacekeeping effort in northern Mali.
• About the Group FACT:
  
  • The Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), is a political and military organisation in the north of Chad, with the goal of overthrowing the government of Chad.
• Some Locational Aspects of Chad:
  • It is a landlocked state in north-central Africa.
  • It is named after Lake Chad.
    • This is the second-largest lake in Africa (after Lake Victoria) and its basin covers parts of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
  • The Sahara Desert roughly covers one third of the country.
  • The south has large expanses of wooded savannas and woodlands.
  • Chad is also a part of the Sahel region.
    
    • Sahel is a semiarid region of western and north-central Africa extending from Senegal eastward to Sudan.
    • It forms a transitional zone between the arid Sahara (desert) to the north and the belt of humid savannas to the south.
  • Chad became an oil-producing nation in 2003, with the completion of a USD 4bn pipeline linking its oilfields to terminals on the Atlantic coast.
• India-Chad Relations:
  
  • Chad is a member country of International Solar Alliance (ISA), an India-France initiative.
  • The country is a member of TEAM-9 initiative (Techno Economic Approach for African Movement) comprising eight West and Central African countries seeking to benefit in technical and economic spheres through cooperation with India.
  • The increase in the import of Crude Oil from Chad is the main reason for the significant increase in the bilateral trade (USD 513.59 million in 2018-19).
  • India has offered a Line of Credit of USD 27.45 million for establishment of Solar PV Module Manufacturing Plant at N’djamena.
  • India implemented a Technical Assistance Programme (TAP) for cotton in six African countries, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda, from 2012 to 2018.
  • Many civilians and Chad public servants have been offered courses and provided training under ITEC (Indian Technical Economic Cooperation).

Source: TH