Chad’s new Prime Minister, Allamaye Halina, announced his first administration on Monday, 27 May 2024, bringing an end to three years of military rule in the desert country. Senior Ministers, primarily loyalists of President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, were retained in the cabinet decree aired on State television.

The former Ambassador to China was appointed on Thursday, 22 May 2024, just before junta leader Deby, an Army General, was inaugurated as President following the opposition’s controversial election victory. The government will have 35 Ministers, 23 of whom came from the previous administration.

Succes Masra, Halina’s predecessor, resigned on Wednesday, after being defeated in the Presidential election. The economist was only in office for four months. Masra’s Transformers Party Ministers were all removed from the new administration. Deby officially won 61% of the vote on May 6, 2024, which International NGOs termed neither credible nor free, and which his biggest competitor dubbed a “masquerade”.

Before being sworn in, Deby declared a “return to constitutional order” and promised to be the President of Chadians from all backgrounds and sensibilities. A junta of 15 Generals declared Deby a Transitional President in April 2021, after his father, President Idriss Deby Itno, was assassinated by rebels after 30 years in power.

Chad, one of the world’s poorest countries, is regarded as critical in the struggle to halt the march of jihadists across the Sahel area.

AFP

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