This is part 5 of an 8-part series
It was 19 April 2021. A persistent rumour was circulating in the top-secret corridors of Franco-African politics. There were those who did not dare say it out loud and those who simply did not want to believe it… But the story spread, from one person “learning about it” to another: Idriss Déby Itno had been killed in fighting between his army and the rebels of the Front pour l’Alternance et la Aoncorde au Tchad (FACT) – a military and political organisation with the goal of overthrowing the Chadian government. In Paris, the headquarters of the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE), France’s foreign intelligence agency, was on high alert.
The ‘swimming pool’ – the DGSE’s other nickname, inherited from the sports arena located not far from its premises on Boulevard Mortier – had its ‘big ears’ in place.
In N’Djamena, the agency maintained
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