From the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., I'm Tim Desher, and this is Heritage Explains.

The President has been killed.

Okay, we're going to begin with breaking news out of chat, where the armies announced President Idris Deby has been killed.

The army says he was leading

soldiers fighting rebels on the front line. Debbie had just won re-election and was one of Africa's

longest serving leaders. Chad's army is currently combating rebel forces. They have launched

an assault on the capital in Jumena. President Debbie was expected

to win a sixth term in office following elections on April the 11th.

At just 37 years old, Mohamed Debbie is the new face of Chad. As a young general, he was in charge of his father's security detail.

Now following Idri's Debbie's death, his son has been thrust into the spotlight as the

head of the country's transitional military council. It's the story hardly anyone in America is talking about.

The long-serving president of Chad, Idris Deby, was killed while visiting the front lines of battle against rebel forces.

After 30 years as president and several attempts to overthrow his regime, President Debbie's

death has been controversial within Chad and the surrounding region in Africa.

France 24 was able to capture some citizen reaction.

From a security point of view, the President played an important role.

And now we're already seeing some instability, so we're worried about his sudden death.

They're already talking about the dissolution of Parliament.

We have a constitution, so in my opinion opinion it's a coup d'etat.

With talk about instability and coup attempts, conflict seems imminent. But Chad is no stranger to conflict.

I'm sure you've seen photos and videos of Toyota trucks with mounted anti-aircraft missile

launchers and machine guns driving through the desert with soldiers hanging off of them. Well, these

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