The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has denied media reports that Ghana has called for the removal of Chad from the African Union (AU) following the murder of President Idriss Déby.

A statement by the Ministry issued on Tuesday, May 4 said “The attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration of the Republic of Ghana has been drawn to a social media publication attributed to Radio France Internationale (RFI) that ‘Ghana is demanding the suspension of Chad from the African Union due to military coup d’etat’.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration wishes to state unequivocally that the Government of Ghana has not made any such pronouncement on the political situation in Chad.

“To that end, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration further wishes to seize this opportunity to urge all actors in the media space to be circumspect in putting out publications which do not inure to the good relations between sisterly African countries.”

The international media reported on Tuesday, April 20 that Mr Deby died of injuries he suffered on the frontline in the Sahel country’s north, where he had gone to visit soldiers battling rebels, an army spokesman said on Tuesday.

Deby, 68, “has just breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield” over the weekend, army spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouna said in a statement read out on state television.

The army said Deby had been commanding his army at the weekend as it battled against rebels who had launched a major incursion into the north of the country on Election Day.