Chad’s top diplomat steps down citing repeated interferences from within cabinet

Chérif Mahamat Zène, Chad’s Foreign minister, submitted Monday his resignation to President Mahamat Idriss Deby, decrying repeated interference and encroachment on his mandate.

“For several months, my commitment and my will to serve my country have been thwarted by parallel initiatives of members of your cabinet and government, undertaken without my knowledge and on your instructions,” Zene said in his resignation letter.

“Given this situation as unhealthy as it is confusing and unacceptable, purposely maintained, and stripping the department I lead of all its prerogatives, and reducing me to a mere figurehead, it seems to me neither opportune nor responsible to continue to hold my position,” the letter added.

Zene according to RFI which spoke to people in the entourage of former top diplomat, was angered by a series of appointments within his ministry without his approval.

The last nail in the coffin was Monday when he was replaced by cabinet spokesman Abderamane Koulamallah to chair a meeting between the state and the diplomatic corps in capital N’Djamena.

The 58-year-old man has reportedly fell out with President Deby. A state source contacted by RFI argues that Zene was absent from the country for five months.

“Did he want our diplomacy to be paralyzed all this time?” the source wondered before slamming Zene as a man without principle who left the boat at such a crucial time for Chad.