Luanda – The leader of Chad’s Military Transitional Council, Mahamat Idriss Déby, arrived Wednesday in Luanda for a 48-hour working visit to Angola, during which he will meet with President João Lourenço.
On arrival at Luanda’s “4 de Fevereiro” International Airport, Mahamat Idriss Déby was welcomed by the Angolan Foreign minister, Téte António, and other Cabinet members.
Chad’s politico-military situation
Chad is going through a civil war since December 2005, involving government forces and several armed groups.
The situation in Chad worsened with the death on 20 April this year of President Idriss Déby Itno, following wounds sustained in fightings against rebel forces.
He died just one day after he was declared winner of the 11 April election that gave him the seventh presidential term in a raw, with 79,32% of the votes.
As a result, a Military Transitional Council was put in place on 2 May to run the country’s current affairs until new elections are held in 18 months.
Angolan President is currently in charge of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), being in that capacity regularly briefed on the situation prevailing in Chad as a member country.
Cooperation
Angola and Chad enjoy excellent relations within the framework of the ICGLR and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), as well as at bilateral level.
Based on two major deals, namely the General Cooperation Agreement and the Memorandum of Understanding on Regular Political Consultations, relations between both countries have been moving towards their strengthening in such areas as oil, energy, transports, finance, agriculture and industry.
In March this year, the first batch of more than a thousand cattle from Chad arrived in Luanda, as part of an Angolan government project to relaunch livestock in the country and dieversify its economy.
Under a Usd 100 million debt settlement deal between the two countries, Angola is expected to get from Chad 75,000 head of cattle over a period of five years.
