The death of Yaya Dillo acting President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno 'Kaka's' cousin decisively tightens the strongman's grip on the Bideyat the Chadian branch of the Zaghawa the ethnic group which is the backbone of Chad's security and military apparatus (Dispatches 7/3/24 Kaka confirms presidential run three days after opposition leader is shot)...

Several PSF members including Idriss Déby Itno's youngest brother Salaye Déby Itno who owned the building were arrested in a humiliating manner...

Idriss Déby killed several rivals over the years: Abbas Koty in 1993 and Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh in 2008 to name but two (AC Vol 52 No 9 Déby on top)...

Yaya Dillo's winding path to the opposition Yaya Dillo Djérou was part of the Bideyat ruling elite and walked a tortuous route from trusted member of the inner circle to bitter opponent of President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno 'Kaka'...

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

Yaya Dillo joined Idriss Déby's Darfur-based rebellion against the government of Chad in 1989 while still a teenager and became part of the inner ruling circle...

But in 2005 he broke with Idriss Déby left Ndjamena and established the Socle pour le Changement l'Unité et la Démocratie (SCUD) in Darfur the first armed group to take arms against Idriss Déby...

Eventually however he was in opposition to Idriss Déby yet again having broken a cardinal rule of the regime forming an opposition movement as a northerner...

He even set up his own party the Parti Socialiste sans Frontières (PSF) and became a celebrity in Chad by publicly accusing Idriss Déby's wife Hinda Mahamat Abdelrahim Açyl of embezzling state funds in 2020...

Humiliated Idriss Déby sent troops to arrest Yaya Dillo at home in February 2021 a few weeks before the presidential elections...

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)...

Much depends on how President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno's ('Kaka') strategy of co-opting the leader of the opposition Les Transformateurs Succès Masra as prime minister works out...

The devastating war in Sudan and awkward relations with France and the United Arab Emirates are casting a long shadow over Chad this year as its military leader Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno 'Kaka' prepares the ground for elections set for October which he hopes will legitimise his rule...

Then and for years after Chadian officers with or without the endorsement of President Idriss Déby Itno sent convoys of military supplies to Darfur while providing sanctuary for the Zaghawa commanders...

Chad's President Idriss Déby Mahamat Itno 'Kaka' maintains close ties with the UAE which helps the RSF to get military supplies through Amdjarass airport near the border with Sudan...

For the following years they were mostly used to pay for military hardware to fight opponents of the Idriss Déby regime...

He still believes that as the one who built the Zaghawa state in the 1990s under Idriss Déby he is the most legitimate candidate for the presidential position...

This wasn't the case in the 2000s when the strongest advocates of support to Zaghawa in Darfur were in Idriss Déby's inner circle...

The worsening regional crisis triggered by the war in Sudan and Chad's own national reconciliation process dominated the visit of President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno 'Kaka' to Paris last month...