General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, who has headed Chad’s military junta for three years, was inaugurated as president on Thursday after winning an election that the opposition challenged.
Deby formally secured 61 percent of the May 6 ballot that international NGOs deemed neither believable nor fair, and which his main opponent labeled a “pretense.”
Taking the oath of office, Déby said he swore “before the Chadian people… to fulfil the high functions that the nation has entrusted in us”.
Eight African heads of state as well as Constitutional Council members and hundreds of guests witnessed the 40-year-old, dressed in his customary white boubou, inaugurated as president at the Palace of Arts and Culture in the capital N’Djamena.
The presidential tenure lasts for five years and can be extended once.
In an earlier speech, he announced a “reestablishment of constitutional order” and promised to serve as “the leader of all Chadians, regardless of their backgrounds and beliefs.”
Déby was appointed interim president in April 2021 by a group of 15 generals following the assassination of his father, long-time ruler Idriss Deby Itno, by rebels after ruling for 30 years.
The inauguration signals the conclusion of three years of military governance in a nation vital to the battle against extremism across the turbulent Sahel region of Africa.
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