Ahmat Acyl Ahmat Acyl ( 1944 – 1982 ) was a Chadian Arab insurgent leader during the Chadian Civil War . In the Volcan Army . Under the Tombalbaye Regime , Acyl had been a National Assembly deputy from Batha . In 1976 he passed to the insurgency , entering in Libya in the small Arab - dominated Volcan Army . With the support of Muammar Gaddafi , Libya ' s President , he opposed the group ' s leader Mohamed Baghlani , and when the latter died in a traffic accident in Tripoli in 1977 , Acyl was promptly designed new leader of the militia . From that moment , he was known as Gaddafi ' s man in Chad . Acyl rapidly strengthened his militia , which became famous for the quality of its fighters and imposed itself on the Chadian checker , garnering increasing support among the Arab element in the country . Important was also Libya ' s support to Acyl ' s group , that from 1978 became bigger and steadier than that to the other insurgent factions . In the same year Acyl had supported Libya ' s gol to reunite the FROLINAT ' s main factions , that resulted in the congress of Faya in which Goukouni Oueddei , leader of the People ' s Armed Forces ( FAP ) , was made new secretary - general of the FROLINAT . The accord didn ' t last long : Gaddafi instigated Acyl to attack Goukouni Oueddei ' s People ' s Armed Forces ( FAP ) positions in Faya on August 27 , 1978 , in an attempt to wrestle from Goukouni the control of the FROLINAT , but was defeated . Acyl , that was at the time the FROLINAT ' s adjutant chief of staff in charge of the direction and administration of the military , promptly left Faya for Tripoli under the protection of Libyan troops . Commander of the CDR . Acyl ' s faction , renamed Democratic Revolutionary Council ( CDR ) at the beginning of 1979 , did not participate in the battle of N ' Djamena that erupted in February 1979 , which caused the downfall of any form of government in Chad . Also for this he was overlooked at the first international peace conference held in March in Kano , in Nigeria ; here the main militias accorded themselves for creating a government of national unity , which would exclude all pro - Libyan factions . As a reaction Acyl and other insurgent leaders such as Abba Siddick , Adoum Dana and Mohamat Said , menaced to create a counter - government ; this was enough to cow Nigeria in organizing in April a second peace conference in Kano , in which all main rebel leaders were present , Acyl among them . The conference saw Goukouni and Habré attacking Acyl and the other faction leaders , whom they accused of having no real military strength on the ground . The participants to the conference were unable to reach any agreement on the formation of the cabinet , and a few weeks later Habré and Goukouni unilaterally agreed with the N ' Djamena Accord to exclude Acyl and his allies from the new Transitional Government of National Unity ( GUNT ) . In their view , Acyl was just " a Libyan provocateur " . The increasingly chaotic situation in Chad brought Nigeria to convene in May a third reconciliation conference , this time held in Lagos , to which all factions were invited . In response , Acyl and others arrived , but discovered that the factions that formed the GUNT had boycotted the meeting , causing the failure of the conference . Acyl now , with Said and Siddick , created on June 2 in northern Chad with Libyan military support a new political subject under Acyl ' s leadership , the Front for Joint Provvisional Action ( FACP ) . Amid rumors that Libya and Nigeria might recognize the FACP as Chad ' s legitimate government , the GUNT was given five weeks by the international community to coopt the other factions in the government . At the end , the GUNT submitted , and its factions participated to a second peace conference in Lagos , open to all parties . The result of the summit was the Lagos Accord , signed on August 21 , under which a national unity government was to be formed . The new cabinet was sworn into office on November 10 , with Goukouni Oueddei as chairman and Acyl as Foreign Minister . On March 20 , 1980 the Defence Minister Habré rallied with Egypt ian and Sudanese support his militia , the Armed Forces of the North , in an attempt to overthrow Goukouni , giving way to the second battle of N ' Djamena , which pitched Habré ' s men against the factions led by Goukouni , Acyl and the vice - president Kamougué . To defeat his rival Goukouni , probably persuaded by Acyl , signed on June 15 a defence pact with Libya ; as a result 7 , 000 Libyan troops and 7 , 000 members of the Libyan - raised Islamic Legion were in Chad by the end of 1980 , and helped expelling Habré from N ' Djamena on December 16 , after a week of harsh fighting . This was followed on January 6 , 1981 by a joint communiqué issued by Goukouni and Gaddafi , that stated that Chad and Libya had agreed to " work for the realization of complete unity between the two countries " . The comuniqué , while strongly supported by Acyl and his faction , had a negative international response , and was also unpopular in Chad ; Goukouni was know seen as a Libyan puppet . Relations between Goukouni and Gaddafi became strained , possibly because of rumors that Gaddafi was instigating a coup d ' état against Goukouni , to replace him with Acyl . Goukouni ' s suspicions of plans to replace him with Acyl had been fuelled previously by the assassination by Libyans of two senior FROLINAT officials , and the clashes among the First Army and Acyl ' s CDR . Consequently , when , on October 22 , French President François Mitterrand proposed to send an Organisation of African Unity peace contingent into Chad to replace the Libyans , Goukouni and the GUNT asked the Libyans to leave immediately Chad ( not without debate : 4 ministers , among whom Acyl , voted against the decision ) . Gaddafi rapidly complied , and the OAU troops ; but these proved ineffectual . Taking advantage of the Libyans ' departure , Habré attacked in 1982 the GUNT , advancing across central Chad from his bases in Darfur , and occupied N ' Djamena with hardly any opposition on June 7 , forcing the GUNT to flee . A month later , on July 19 , Acyl died in the southwestern town of Laï when he inadvertently stepped backwards into the spinning propellers of his Cessna aeroplane , a gift from Gaddafi . He was succeeded as leader of the CDR militia by the former Defence Minister Acheikh ibn Oumar .