Chad’s President Idriss Deby has reportedly died of injuries suffered on front line, an army spokesman said on Tuesday.
His death came shortly after provisional election results which projected he would win a sixth term in office, with 80% of the vote.
The government and parliament have been dissolved, while a military council will govern for the next 18 months.
He had gone to the front line at the weekend to visit troops battling rebels based across the border in Libya.
Deby who is Chad’s long-ruling president, was re-elected to a sixth term with 79.32 percent of the votes cast in April 11’s election, according to provisional results from the electoral commission.
The veteran leader won a sixth term as president, as the army said it had beaten back a column of insurgents advancing on the capital N’Djamena.
Deby, 68, took 79.3 percent of the vote from the April 11 election after top opposition leaders boycotted to protest his efforts to extend his 30 years in power.
He seized power in an armed rebellion in 1990, and is one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders and a close ally of Western powers battling Islamist militants in West and Central Africa.
Deby has led Chadian troops on successful onslaught against Boko Haram insurgents around the country’s borders with Nigeria.
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