Deby Sworn In as Chad's President Amid Controversy

General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who has led Chad's military junta for three years, was sworn in as president after an election victory contested by the opposition.

Deby officially won 61 percent of the May 6 vote that international NGOs said was neither credible nor free and which his main rival called a "masquerade".

Taking the oath of office, Deby said he swore "before the Chadian people to fulfill the high functions that the nation has entrusted to us".

Eight African heads of state as well as Constitutional Council members and hundreds of guests watched as the 40-year-old, dressed in his customary white boubou, was inaugurated as president at the Palace of Arts and Culture in the capital N'Djamena.

The presidential term runs for five years and can be renewed once.

In a speech had earlier declared a "return to constitutional order" and pledged to be "the president of Chadians from all backgrounds and of all sensibilities".

Deby was proclaimed transitional president in April 2021 by a junta of 15 generals after his father, iron-fisted president Idriss Deby Itno, was shot dead by rebels after 30 years in power.

The swearing-in marks the end of three years of military rule in a country crucial to the fight against jihadism across Africa's restive Sahel region.

In 2021, Deby was quickly endorsed by an international community led by France, whose forces in recent years have been ousted by military regimes in its other former colonies Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

The investiture ceremony also officialises what the opposition has denounced as a Deby dynasty.

After the Constitutional Council rejected Masra's bid to annul the result, he said there was "no other national legal recourse" and called on supporters to "remain mobilized" but "peaceful".

The turnout of heads of state at the investiture was an opportunity to gauge international support for the president.