Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday called on the international community to support a peaceful transition in Chad after the sudden death last month of longtime leader Idriss Deby Itno.
Deby’s death has raised serious concerns about stability in Chad, whose army has also played a key role in battling jihadists in the Sahel and the fragile Lake Chad region.
Chadian forces were instrumental in helping Nigerian troops drive Boko Haram from areas in the northeast in 2015 and have acted as a buffer along the border between the countries where jihadist groups are active.
Chad’s new junta, headed by Deby’s four-star general son Mahamat, has appointed a transitional civilian government and promised to hold elections within 18 months.
“The need to support the Chadian government to effectively carry out its planned 18-month transition is sacrosanct,” Buhari said after a meeting with African leaders in Abuja.
“The sanctity of the Chadian constitution as the supreme guiding document defining the social contract in the country must be respected.”
The Nigerian leader urged development partners and countries including France, the United States and Britain, as well as the UN and European Union, to support the transition.
Deby died, according to the Chadian authorities, on April 19 after suffering fatal wounds fighting the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), a large armed group with a rear base in Libya.
Under Deby’s rule, Chad, with one of the most well-resourced militaries in West Africa, contributed to regional efforts to defeat Boko Haram jihadists and a breakaway faction, the Islamic State in the West African Province (ISWAP).
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