Idriss Deby
Idriss Deby ruled Chad for thirty years, made its army the one everyone in the Sahel relied on, and was killed at the front. He was a French-trained fighter pilot who became army chief under Hissene Habre, fell out with him, fled to Sudan, and came back in 1990 with a column that took the capital in three weeks. Habre left for Senegal, where he was eventually convicted of crimes against humanity - the first head of state tried by the courts of another African country. Deby's Chad was poor, landlocked and permanently at war with someone. Rebel columns reached the capital in 2006 and again in 2008, and were beaten off with French air support both times. Oil began flowing in 2003 through a World Bank-supervised pipeline meant to earmark revenue for development; he changed the law within two years to spend it on weapons. That army then became the region's instrument. Chadian troops did the hardest fighting against jihadist groups in northern Mali in 2013 and against Boko Haram around Lake Chad, and Chad hosted the French counter-terrorism command for the whole Sahel. The Central African Republic's collapse the same year sent hundreds of thousands of refugees across his southern border. The arrangement bought him near-total impunity at home. Elections returned him repeatedly, the constitution's term limits were removed and restored to suit, and opponents were detained. In April 2021 he was wounded visiting troops fighting a rebel advance and died; the army suspended the constitution and installed his son, which is a succession and not an election.
- Lived: 1952 CE – 2021 CE
- Nationality: Chadian
- Roles: head_of_state, politician
