Chad president declares week of mourning for PM
Source: Reuters
N'DJAMENA, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Chad's President Idriss Deby declared seven days of national mourning late on Friday after the central African country's prime minister died from a brain haemorrhage in a Paris hospital. Pascal Yoadimnadji, who had served for two years as prime minister, had been flown to hospital in France after suffering a heart failure but died early on Friday. He was 56. "I remember him as a man of character, a nationalist who had a strong sense of the importance of the Republic," Deby, who seized power in a military coup in 1990, told an extraordinary cabinet meeting in the capital N'Djamena. Yoadimnadji, who oversaw the daily running of government and was instrumental in implementing reforms in the country's nascent oil sector, will be buried in N'Djamena on Monday. Infrastructure Minister Adoum Younousmi will act as interim head of the cabinet until Yoadimnadji's successor is chosen. Deby's government faces a low-intensity war against rebels in eastern Chad as well as ethnic conflict spilling across the border from the neighbouring Sudanese region of Darfur. The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of Chadians.
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