Thousands of people paid their last respect at the funeral in N\u2019Djamena of the late president of Chad, Idriss D\u00e9by, on Friday.<\/p>\n
He died on Monday from wounds sustained while leading his troops against a rebel offensive.<\/p>\n
His death came a day after election officials said he had won a sixth term in office. His son, General Mahamat Idriss D\u00e9by, 37,\u00a0will act as interim president and commander of the armed forces for the next 18 months when \u201cfair, free and democratic\u201d elections will take place.<\/p>\n
When the news of his death broke Cameroon\u2019s Paul Biya said D\u00e9by served \u201ctirelessly\u201d, the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s Felix Tshisikedi called it a \u201ca great loss for Chad and for all of Africa\u201d, Mali\u2019s President Bah N\u2019Daw lamented his “brutal” death and South Africa\u2019s Cyril Ramaphosa called it \u201cdisturbing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Several African leaders \u2013 including those from Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Nigeria \u2013 attended the funeral, ignoring warnings from the rebels that they should not attend for security reasons.<\/p>\n
Aljazeera reported that French president Emmanuel Macron, who was at the funeral, pledged support for the country\u2019s \u201cstability and integrity\u201d, but also urged his military successors to steer a smooth return to civilian rule.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of the region enjoy a peace pact with France. We have to make sure the pact lives on \u2013 and that of liberty and independence,\u201d Macron said, adding that France was \u201con your side\u201d.<\/p>\n
Addressing his words to the casket, Macron said: \u201cYou lived as a soldier, you died as a soldier with weapons in hand. You gave your life for Chad in defence of its citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He described D\u00e9by as a \u201cbrave friend\u201d.<\/p>\n
The BBC reported that Mahamat D\u00e9by, vowed to \u201cstay loyal to the memory\u201d of his father and pledged to continue the legacy of \u201cdialogue, forgiveness, peace, unity\u201d that the late president was \u201cadmired for\u201d.<\/p>\n
After the military honours and speeches, prayers were said at the Grand Mosque of N\u2019Djamena.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
D\u00e9by’s remains will be flown to Amdjarass, a small village next to his hometown of Berdoba, more than 1,000km from the capital, near the Sudanese border, where he will be buried.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thousands of people paid their last respect at the funeral in N\u2019Djamena of the late president of Chad, Idriss D\u00e9by, on Friday. He died on Monday from wounds sustained while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":14271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}