Idriss Déby Itno

Idriss Déby was born in Berdoba, northeastern Chad, to the Zaghawa ethnic group and trained at the Officers' School in N'Djamena and the Institut Aéronautique Amaury de la Grange in France. As army chief under Hissène Habré during the 1980s Toyota War, he won decisive military victories repelling Libyan forces from northern Chad. In December 1990, after falling out with Habré, Déby led his Patriotic Salvation Movement rebels from Sudan to seize N'Djamena.

Ruling Chad for three decades, Déby weathered multiple rebel incursions and oversaw Chad's transformation into an oil-producing nation. He made Chad's armed forces indispensable to international counterterrorism efforts in the Sahel, dispatching troops to combat Boko Haram in the Lake Chad basin and al-Qaeda affiliates in Mali. In April 2021, just days after winning a sixth presidential term, Déby traveled to the northern frontline to personally command troops against FACT rebels and died from combat wounds.