Mon 03 May 2021:
The military council that took power in Chad last month after the shock death of veteran leader Idriss Deby has named a 40-person transitional government. the army spokesman said.
The new government came after consultations with the transitional prime minister, Albert Pahimi Padacke who was tasked to propose a list of cabinet members to the CMT.
Deby’s 37-year-old son Mahamat, who took the helm of the so-called “Transitional Military Council (CMT)”, named a government on Sunday comprising 40 ministers and deputy ministers and created a new national reconciliation ministry, military council spokesman Azem Bermandoa Agouna said in a televised statement.
A Ministry of National Reconciliation and Dialogue has been created and entrusted to Acheikh Ibn Oumar, a former rebel leader who became a diplomatic adviser to the presidency in 2019.
Opposition figure Mahamat Ahmat Alhabo of the Party for Freedoms and Development was named the justice minister.
Cherif Mahamat Zene was appointed the foreign minister, a post he held from 2018 to 2020. He had also served as the permanent representative of Chad to the UN.
In a tweet on Monday, he thanked the CMT and the prime minister for his appointment.
“I’m aware of the weight of responsibility in this particularly difficult period for our country. May Allah the Almighty guide our steps and make it easier,” Zene said.
Lydie Beassemda, the first woman candidate for a presidential election in the April 11 poll and former minister under late President Idriss Deby Itno, was named the higher education and research minister. Beassemda is one of the nine women of the new government.
Earlier on Sunday, the military announced the lifting of an overnight curfew introduced after Deby’s death.
An overnight curfew, barring people from leaving their homes between 6pm (17:00 GMT) and 5am (04:00 GMT), was introduced on April 20, hours after the military announced that Deby had died from wounds sustained in fighting with rebel forces. The start of the curfew was later pushed back to 8pm (19:00 GMT).
Chad has remained tense since Deby’s death, with the military saying that six people were killed last week during demonstrations in N’Djamena and the south against what the opposition has branded an “institutional coup d’etat”.
The military has said Deby died after suffering injuries in fighting with rebels from the Libya-based Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), which had launched an election day offensive on April 11.
The announcement of Deby’s death came only a day after he was proclaimed the winner of the presidential election, handing him a sixth term in office after 30 years of iron-fisted rule.
The military council is in charge of the 18-month transitional government, after which it will hold democratic elections.
It is chaired by Gen. Mahamat Idriss Deby, the son of the late president who died from wounds sustained in fighting with rebel forces, a day after he was proclaimed the winner of a presidential election, handing him a sixth term in office.
FILE PHOTO
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