For the time being, the 37 year-old has the backing of former colonial power France.

President Emmanuel Macron went to N’Djamena for Friday’s funeral of Mahamat’s 68-year-old father who died at the hands of rebels a day after winning his sixth term as President of the troubled, largely desert country.

Constitutionally, Chad’s parliamentary speaker should have taken power and moved to elections within 18 months.

But the constitution and parliament have both been scrapped by the military council that put the son at the helm.

The country’s borders have been closed and a night time curfew is being enforced

France’s decision to back this move “for reasons of security following extraordinary events” puts its at odds with the international community.

The African Union, which is bound by its basic law to red card any unconstitutional change in government, has called on Mahamat to restore the country to legality.

Chad’s opposition has called the new power structure a “dynastic coup” and its trade unions are calling for a general strike until the constitution is restored.

There is an uneasy calm in Chad following the move that has played into the hands of the rebel Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT).

Mahamat realises this. He has made frequent appeals over national radio for peace and insisted that he open to dialogue.

The opposition will not take up this offer while he claims to be president.

France’s support comes because of Chad’s pivotal role in the fight against jihadis in the Sahel – that strip of land between the Sahara and the North African coastal states.

Idriss Deby was an inveterate supporter of the group of five Sahel states.

These include Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger and Mali.

In N’Djamena on Friday, Macron impressed on their leaders present the need to stand united against militant Islam threatening all their countries.

Will they heed the call from their former colonial power, who provides Chad with intelligence and security?

Or will they fall into line with the African Union that is bound to exclude Chad from the continental body’s deliberations until the constitution is restored?

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Africa’s fifth longest service President who won Sunday’s election with 79,3% of the vote, elected to be with his soldiers rather than attend a ceremony celebrating his sixth term in the office he seized in a 1990 rebellion.

His army spokesman General Azar Bermourdoa Agoma read a statement on national television saying Deby had breathed his last while defending the nation’s sovereignty on the battlefield.

Perhaps further details will come from his his 37-year-old son General Mahamat Idriss Deby who has been named interim president.

We should not expect much from the media after the military imposed a curfew and shut the country’s borders following the president’s death.

Chad’s constitution and its legislative assembly have been dissolved.

This means the legal course of events following the death of the president, that would put the speaker in charge for 40 days until a transition or fresh elections are held, is not being followed.

At the weekend the military said it had stopped an approach on the capital N’Djamena by rebels of the Front For Chance And Concord in Chad.

The organisation that goes by the Acronym FACT has bases in neighboring Libya.

The Chadian army denies that FACT has seized control of Kanem Province 300 km north of N’Djamena and claims it has stopped the rebels in their tracks, killing more than 300 of then.

The 68 year-old son of a herder was a valued ally of the Western powers and a leading member of the Sahel group fighting jihadis.

The rebel advance that started on April 9 had the United States withdrawing non-essential personnel from its embassy in N’Djamena and the British Foreign Office urging nationals to leave Chad.

France, by contrast advised its nationals that there is no threat in N’Djamena.

The rebel action was an embarrassment for Deby who fought the election with a promise of bringing peace and security to the nation.

This is by no means the first rebel attack he has resisted.

In 2008 rebels advanced to the gates of the presidential palace in the capital before they were repelled with French military support.

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