Few countries are feeling the loss of Chad’s President Idriss Déby more keenly than former colonial power France. Paris has long seen Déby as a key ally in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel, reports Voice of America.
Now some observers say his death brings uncertainty to this campaign — and France’s hopes for an eventual drawdown of its Barkhane force in the region.
The loss of a courageous friend — that’s how President Macron’s office has described the death of Idriss Déby — a statement echoed by French defense minister Florence Parly. She said Chad’s slain leader had been an essential ally in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel— noting Chad had only recently deployed a new 1,200-member battalion to the high-risk three-border zone straddling Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
Some experts now wonder if that force will now be diminished, as Chad faces multiple sources of instability at home.
Over Déby’s 30-year rule, France and other Western partners saw him as a key military ally in the region. They were willing to do business, despite his undemocratic practices. Analysts today call Déby’s death an especially big blow for Paris.
Geopolitical specialist Antoine Glaser told France’s Europe 1 radio that Déby was seen as France’s man in the region, supporting its pervious operation Serval which turned into today's 5,100-man Barkhane antiterrorist operation in the Sahel. Glaser said Déby’s death will be a hard blow for Macron’s hopes to reduce France’s military role in the region.