Chadian President, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno dismissed several high-ranking defence and security officials from their posts just days after removing the security minister.
A presidential decree announced late Wednesday stated that the director generals of the police and military police, the chiefs of general staff of the armed forces, and the commanders of the national nomadic guard had all been “called to other functions.”
This follows Saturday’s announcement on state television that General Ali Ahmat Akhabache had replaced Security Minister Mahamat Charfadine Margui.
These reshuffles occur against a backdrop of a deteriorating political and security situation in the central African nation.
The killing of a former commander of general intelligence and his son by unidentified armed men prompted an official order last week “to secure the city of N’Djamena” and carry out “systematic searches” for weapons.
Heavily armed soldiers were deployed in parts of the capital to conduct these searches.
Opposition parties also declared last week that they would refuse to participate in parliamentary and local elections on December 29, denouncing a “harmful climate of dictatorship and of terror”.
General Deby Itno was proclaimed transitional president in April 2021 by a junta of 15 generals following the death of his father, the iron-fisted president Idriss Deby Itno, who had been shot dead by rebels after 30 years in power.
Following the approval of a new constitution in a December referendum, 40-year-old Deby Itno was elected as president in May. The opposition boycotted the elections, which international observers found to lack credibility.