Chad Gets New Prime Minister

After holding the strategic oil portfolio, Nadingar was minister for decentralisation in the government headed by Saleh Abbas, who took office in May 2008.

Nadingar comes from Bebidja in the southwest of the central African country.

The speed of Nadingar’s appointment was a surprise, though several observers said that they had been expecting Saleh Abbas’s resignation for several weeks, in the absence of government activity.

No cabinet meetings have been held since December and political differences became apparent between President Idriss Deby Itno and his prime minister, a former opposition figure who rallied to the regime.

Several ministers in Saleh Abbas’s government have been accused of embezzlement in a scandal related to the purchase of school textbooks.

State television reported that Saleh Abbas had tendered his resignation and that Deby had accepted it in a brief report that gave no reason why the prime minister stepped down. – SAPA