The death of Chad’s leader shakes the West’s attitude towards strongmen

IF ONE WERE to draw a line across Africa at roughly its widest point, it would cross a zone of almost uninterrupted instability, from the clan feuds of Somalia to the jihadist rebellions of the Sahel. At the mid-point of this line would be Chad, a powderkeg surrounded by blazes. (Its neighbours include strife-torn Libya, Sudan and the Central African Republic.) , the soldier who ran it for the past 30 years, has prevented Chad from exploding. But now he is dead. On April 20th the army said he had died of wounds sustained in battle. He was personally leading his troops against rebels who were heading for the capital, N’Djamena. His passing, and a subsequent military coup by his son, have cast a shadow over the region, and over France’s policy of propping up African strongmen.Instead of handing power to the leader of parliament, as required by the constitution, the army put in place a military council headed by Mr Déby’s 37-year-old son, Mahamat Idriss Déby (pictured). The African Union, which is supposed to have a “no coup” policy, uttered barely a murmur. France, Chad’s main Western ally, turned a blind eye, too.