France has convened a humanitarian aid conference for 15 April concerned mainly with the effects of the war on stability in Chad (AC Vol 65 No 2 Mahamat Kaka co-opts Succès in pre-election campaign)...

A few days later Mahamat Kaka declared his candidacy for the presidential elections on 6 May silencing any doubt that he is governing in the manner set by his late father Idriss Deby Itno (AC Vol 62 No 9 Death on the front line a coup and then an about turn)...

A few days after that announcement Succès Masra the former opposition leader co-opted by Mahamat Kaka to lead his government as prime minister on 1 January declared his candidacy in the presidential poll...

In the weeks before he died Yaya Dillo had become very vocal against the regime again and was trying to mobilise his relatives in the military who were unhappy with Mahamat Kaka...

Mahamat Kaka's mother is Gorane and he is often considered closer to them than to the Zaghawa...

Only an elite member directly related to Mahamat Kaka like Yaya Dillo would dare make such a challenge pundits said...

But it seems Mahamat Kaka had already decided to do away with Yaya Dillo...

That action attracted timid comments from Brussels Paris and Washington the UN and the African Union who placed faith in an investigation (AC Vol 64 No 23 Presidents Mahamat Kaka and Macron meet on security threats)...

Relations within the elite will be more complicated for Mahamat Kaka to manage now but not seriously so...

Mahamat Kaka will believe nobody in his extended family can or will oppose him now...

Mahamat Kaka would be unwise to take too much comfort from his latest moves analysts warn...

Some see Mahamat Kaka's actions as shows of strength that quell all opposition but others think the violence is a sign of weakness and a lack of control over the army's leading officers...

His mother belonged to the Kouriara the same sub-clan as Idriss Déby Itno and Mahamat Kaka...

This meant the battle lines are no longer limited to Darfur West and South Kordofan and Khartoum (AC Vol 65 No 2 Mahamat Kaka co-opts Succès in pre-election campaign)...

MBZ offers both financial backing for Ethiopia's parlous economy and some diplomatic weight as Abiy's trade off deal with Somaliland for a port in the Gulf of Aden comes under growing fire in the region (AC Vol 65 No 2 Mahamat Kaka co-opts Succès in pre-election campaign)...

Then SAF Commander General Abdel Fattah al Burhan expelled all of UAE's diplomats from Sudan which prompted retaliation from Abu Dhabi (AC Vol 64 No 25 Mahamat Kaka co-opts Succès in pre-election campaign)...

Direct flights into Sudan were attempted partly because flight tracking accounts were highlighting the number of planes going between Uganda and Chad where the UAE has set up a field hospital in Amdjarass a remote town from which the family of Chad's transitional President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno 'Kaka' hails (AC Vol 65 No 2 Mahamat Kaka co-opts Succès in pre-election campaign)...

9% on a 62% turnout (Dispatches 20/12/23 Mahamat Déby's new constitution will reinforce central control)...

Kaka is determined to hang on to power while maintaining a veneer of democratic fairness a tough task but one which the west will hope he succeeds in now that its security allies in Africa are so few (AC Vol 64 No 11 Succès on K-Street & Vol 65 No 2 Mahamat Kaka co-opts Succès in pre-election campaign) The theme of political transition is also prominent in Gabon where a constitutional referendum is promised for later in the year...

Mahamat Kaka's junta and his allied in the UAE have been accused by General Abdel Fattah al Burhan and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF)-backed regime of fuelling the war in Sudan by supplying arms to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under the command of Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo 'Hemeti'...

Two of Mahamat Kaka's uncles are also related to Sudan's Minister of Finance Jibril Ibrahim who has come out strongly against Hemeti and the RSF...

5 billion to keep Mahamat Kaka's regime on side...

Just how critical the Emirati role is in Chad and Sudan was underlined when one of Abu Dhabi's senior security officials was part of Mahamat Kaka's delegation when he met France's President Emmanuel Macron and officials from the Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (DGSE) in Paris in October (AC Vol 64 No 23 Presidents Mahamat Kaka and Macron meet on security threats)...

For now Mahamat Kaka's primary concern is holding the ruling elite together behind him and co-opting enough of his domestic opponents ahead of the October elections...

Mahamat Kaka emerged as leader in the wake of his father's death in April 2021 while visiting troops fighting insurgents...

Some in Mahamat Kaka's extended family were also dissatisfied with the division of patronage following his father's death (AC Vol 64 No 4 Kaka falls back on authoritarianism)...

Assisted by Abu Dhabi's funding Mahamat Kaka wants to restructure the government and military ahead of the elections...

Mahamat Kaka's uncle Gen Abakar Choua Allahi runs the Garde Nationale et Nomade du Tchad (GNNT)...

Mahamat Kaka is desperately trying to manage these discontents and rivalries within the security system...

To make this point Mahamat Kaka has to keep Chad at peace with Sudan whichever faction is in control of Darfur...

The delay was caused by Ndjamena's expelling Germany's Ambassador Jan-Christian Gordon Kricke in April after he had criticised Mahamat Kaka's government...