A report on the death of the Chadian president, Idriss Déby, has been confirmed.

According to News available to Obinwannem Media, the president died a few hours after he won re-election for a sixth term in office.

The president was said to have been commanding his army in battle against rebels, who launched an attack on the capital N’Djamena.

Deby, had been Chad’s president for about 30 years.

Deby, 68, came into power in a rebellion in 1990, took 79.3% of the vote in the April election, which was boycotted by top opposition leaders.

He was expected to give a victory speech to his supporters, but his campaign director, Mahamat Zen Bada, said he has instead gone to visit Chadian soldiers on the front lines.

Zen Bada told reporters, “The candidates would have liked to be here to celebrate, but right now he is alongside our valiant defence and security forces to fight terrorist threatening our territory”.

The rebel group front for change and concord in Chad, which is based across the northern frontier with Libya, attacked a border post on election day, and then advanced hundreds of kilometers South.

But it suffered setbacks over the weekend, Chad military spokesman Azem Bermendao Agouna, told Reuters that army troops killed more than 300 insurgents and captured 150 on Saturday in Kanem province around 300km (185miles) from N’Djamena.

Ijeoma Njoku reporting, Obinwannem News