Yet nobody doubts that President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno 'Kaka' will win probably with over 50% removing the need for a second round on 22 June...

As under the incumbent's father Idriss Déby Itno no northern candidate was permitted for fear of sowing further division in the elite while the killing of Kaka's cousin Yaya Dillo Djérou reminded members of Kaka's extended family that they must stay in line (AC Vol 65 No 6 Kaka paves a hard road to sham poll)...

Questions will then be asked of Chad's leader Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno 'Kaka' about his commitment to solidarity with his Zaghawa people on the Sudanese side of the border (AC Vol 65 No 2 Mahamat Kaka co-opts Succès in pre-election campaign)...

Chad's leader Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno 'Kaka' who is preparing for elections on 6 May will ensure his government gets a signficant allocation of funds for humanitarian operations in the east of his country...

Chad's letter also contains evidence that the US may also have been acting insensitively as well as insights into President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno 'Kaka''s regime in the run-up to the presidential election on 6 May (AC Vol 65 No 6 Kaka paves a hard road to sham poll)...

He is close to Idriss Youssouf Boy Kaka's most senior advisor and his sister was married to Kaka's late father President Idriss Déby Itno...

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...