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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There’s no suggestion of  France’s operation Burkhane being terminated.

But Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian says it cannot last an eternity.

French troops intervened Mali six years ago to drive out Al Qaeda forces that had seized control of half the country.

There are still 4 500 French troops there. 

France also provides military basic against Islamist militants in Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Mauritania. The so-called G5

Foreign Minister Jean Yves le Drian tells the parliamentary foreign affairs committee in Paris that countries of Sahel should not stay in the comfort zone of thinking that Burkhane is forever behind them.

African security in the longer term will have to be secured by African nations themselves.

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More people are believed to trapped in the building.

Gunmen attacked the Aziz Istanbul restaurant, and security forces were deployed to try to end the onslaught.

Witnesses said shots were heard around 9 p.m.

Several hours later, a heavy exchange of gunfire still rang out.

Sunday’s attack comes less than two years after Islamic extremists killed 30 people at a downtown restaurant popular with foreigners.

It wasn’t immediately clear who carried out the attack.

Burkina Faso, like other countries in West Africa, has been sporadically targeted by jihadist groups operating across Africa’s Sahel.

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It’s calling on the continental organization codevelop cooperative mechanism to control the jihadis.

ends intro

Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmajid Teboune was speaking for his President Abdelziz Bouteflika who’s been made the AU coordinator against violent extremism and terrorism.

He says more than 5 000 young Africans have joined jihadi groups in Iraq, Syria and the Sahel.

Their radical and violent ideas  pose a danger to their own countries when they come home – as Algeria learned to its cost with militants returning from fighting Russians in Afghanistan a quarter of a century ago.

Bouteflika says Africa must cooperate to curb the extremists by limiting their movement with stricter controls on transport and tougher  border controls

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