Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué (May 20, 1939 – May 9, 2011) was a
Chad
Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...
ian politician and army officer. Kamougué was a leading figure in the
1975 coup d'état and subsequently held several positions in the Chadian government and legislature. He was
Vice President of Chad
The vice president of Chad (, ) was a political position in Chad from 1975 to 1982, from 1990 to 1991 and from 2021 to 2022.
There were no provisions defined for succession during the regime of Hissène Habré until 1989.
A revision to the c ...
from 1979 to 1982 and
President of the National Assembly from 1997 to 2002. Kamougué was also President of the
Union for Renewal and Democracy (URD) political party, and he was appointed as Minister of National Defense in April 2008.
Life and career
He was born in
Bitam
Bitam is a town in northern Gabon on the N2 road on the border with Cameroon. As of the 2013 census, its population is 27,923.
It is home to a large market and an airport
An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly fo ...
,
Gabon
Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...
, where his father was serving as a soldier in the French Army.
["Les portraits des sept candidats à l'élection présidentielle du 20 mai 2001 au Tchad"]
, ''Afrique Express'', number 229, May 16, 2001 . However, his family were from
Logone Oriental in southern Chad and he was always considered to be Chadian. Kamougué attended the school for soldiers' children in
Brazzaville
Brazzaville () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Administratively, it is a Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and a Communes of the Republic of the Congo, commune. Constituting t ...
before joining the army himself and then being sent to France for officer training.
As a junior officer he was one of the key military leaders (some sources name him as "the" leader) of the
coup d'etat which overthrew and killed
Chadian President Ngarta Tombalbaye on April 13, 1975. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1975 to 1978 as well as a member of the Higher Military Council (''Conseil supérieur militaire'', CSM) under Head of State
Félix Malloum.
[ Kamougué subsequently became Vice President in the Transitional Government of National Unity (GUNT) when ]Goukouni Oueddei
Goukouni Oueddei ( '; born 1944) is a Chadian politician who served as President of Chad from 1979 to 1982.
A northerner, Goukouni commanded FROLINAT rebels with Libyan support during the first Chadian Civil War against Chad's southern-domin ...
became President on November 10, 1979, remaining in that position until the GUNT was overthrown by supporters of Hissène Habré
Hissène Habré (Arabic: ''Ḥusaīn Ḥabrī'', Chadian Arabic: ; ; 13 August 1942 – 24 August 2021), also spelled Hissen Habré, was a Chadian politician and convicted war criminal who served as the 5th president of Chad from 1982 unt ...
when they captured N'Djamena
N'Djamena ( ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Chad, largest city of Chad. It is also a Provinces of Chad, special statute region, divided into 10 districts or ''arrondissements'', similar to the city of Paris.
Originally calle ...
on June 7, 1982.
After Habré seized N'Djamena, Kamougué, based in Moundou
Moundou () is the second-largest city in Chad and is the capital of the region of Logone Occidental.
The city lies on the Mbéré River (a tributary of the Western Logone) some 475 kilometres south of the capital N'Djamena. It is the main ci ...
, continued to control southern Chad at the head of a permanent committee, and he called for a federal solution to the conflict, which was rejected by Habré. On September 4, 1982, a broadcast from N'Djamena announced that rebels within Kamougué's forces had captured his headquarters and that he had fled to Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...
.
Kamougué returned from exile in early 1987. He then became Minister of Agriculture under Habré in August 1987.
Kamougué was appointed as Minister of Civil Service and Labor in April 1993, as part of the transitional government formed after the Sovereign National Conference. Following the January 1994 devaluation of the CFA franc
CFA franc (, ) is the name of two currencies used by 210 million people (as of 2023) in fourteen African countries: the West African CFA franc (where "CFA" stands for , i.e. "African Financial Community" in English), used in eight West African c ...
, a civil service strike began on April 26, 1994, seeking higher salaries to compensate for the devaluation of the currency, and Kamougué led negotiations with the strikers. In the midst of the strike, he was dismissed as Minister of Civil Service and Labor by President Idriss Déby
Idriss Déby Itno ( '; 18 June 1952 – 20 April 2021) was a Chadian politician and military officer who was the sixth List of heads of state of Chad, president of Chad from 1991 until his death in 2021 during the 2021 Northern Chad offensive, No ...
on May 17, 1994.
In the 1996 presidential election, Kamougué stood as a candidate, taking second place in the first round on June 2 with 12.39% of the vote; in the second round, held on July 3, he was defeated by President Déby, taking 30.91% of the vote compared to Déby's 69.09%.
Following the 1997 parliamentary election, Kamougué's party, the Union for Renewal and Democracy, reached an agreement with Déby's ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) on May 8, 1997, according to which Kamougué would become President of the National Assembly. He was elected to that position on May 9.
Kamougué ran again in the May 2001 presidential election. In March 2001, he was one of three presidential candidates who called for the election to be delayed and for the international community to delay funding for the election, describing it as a "masquerade" and a "travesty". The URD decided against boycotting the election and nominated Kamougué as its candidate at an ordinary party congress in early April. Kamougué accused Déby and the MPS of running Chad "in a catastrophic and disastrous manner". In the election, which took place on schedule, he took fourth place and 6.02% of the vote. He remained President of the National Assembly until 2002. In the April 2002 parliamentary election, he was re-elected to the National Assembly as an URD candidate from Sarh
Semi-active radar homing (SARH) is a common type of missile guidance system, perhaps the most common type for longer-range air-to-air and surface-to-air missile systems. The name refers to the fact that the missile itself is only a passive dete ...
constituency in Barh Köh Department.
It was initially reported that Kamougué was one of the opposition leaders arrested during a battle between government forces and rebels in N'Djamena
N'Djamena ( ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Chad, largest city of Chad. It is also a Provinces of Chad, special statute region, divided into 10 districts or ''arrondissements'', similar to the city of Paris.
Originally calle ...
in early February 2008. On February 16, 2008, Minister of Communications Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor denied this, saying that Kamougué had not been arrested and that he was "hiding in the country's interior". It later emerged that Kamougué had escaped arrest. In a statement on February 26, he and another opposition leader, Saleh Kebzabo, released a statement calling for "the immediate convening of an all-inclusive national dialogue", the release of the three opposition leaders who had been arrested and an international inquiry into the arrests, and an immediate cease-fire. Kamougué returned to N'Djamena from Cameroon on March 22, having received guarantees of safety from the authorities.
In the government of Prime Minister , which was announced on April 23, 2008, Kamougué was appointed as Minister of National Defense.["Tchad: l'opposition entre dans le nouveau gouvernement tchadien"]
Agence France-Presse, April 23, 2008 . He was one of four members of the Coordination of Political Parties for Defense of the Constitution opposition coalition to be included in the government.[
On 9 May 2011, Kamougué died in Koumra, southern Chad, while campaigning for his party's candidates in a parliamentary ]by-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections.
A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...
.
References
Kamougué, Gen. Wadal Abdelkader
International Who's Who. accessed September 4, 2006.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kamougue, Wadel Abdelkader
Vice presidents of Chad
Presidents of the National Assembly (Chad)
Members of the National Assembly (Chad)
Chadian military personnel
2011 deaths
1939 births
People of the Chadian–Libyan War
Agriculture ministers of Chad
Defense ministers of Chad
Ministers of foreign affairs of Chad
Union for Renewal and Democracy politicians
People from Logone Oriental Region
People from Woleu-Ntem Province
20th-century Chadian politicians
21st-century Chadian politicians