Jacques Moudeina in Bongor and held a bachelor's degree in science. After finishing school, he entered the Officers' School in N'Djamena. From there he was sent to France for training, returning to Chad in 1976 with a professional pilot certificate. He remained loyal to the army and President Félix Malloum even after Chad's central authority crumbled in 1979. He returned from France in February 1979 and found Chad had become a battleground for many armed groups. Déby tied his fortunes to those of Hissène Habré, one of the chief Chadian warlords. A year after Habré became president in 1982, Déby was made commander-in-chief of the army. He distinguished himself in 1984 by destroying pro-Libyan forces in eastern Chad. In 1985, Habré sent him to Paris to follow a course at the École de Guerre and upon his return in 1986, he was made chief military advisor to the president. In 1987, he confronted Libyan forces on the field, with the help of France in the so-called "Toyota War", adopting tactics that inflicted heavy losses on enemy forces. During the war, he also led a raid on Maaten al-Sarra Air Base in Kufrah, in Libyan territory. A rift emerged on 1 April 1989 between Habré and Déby over the increasing power of the Presidential Guard. According to Human Rights Watch, Habré was found responsible for "widespread political killings, systematic torture, and thousands of arbitrary arrests", as well as ethnic purges when it was perceived that group leaders could pose a threat to his rule, including many of Déby's Zaghawa ethnic group who supported the government. Increasingly paranoid, Habré accused Déby, minister of the interior Mahamat Itno, and commander in chief of the Chadian army Hassan Djamous of preparing a coup d'état. Déby fled first to Darfur, then to Libya, where he was welcomed by Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli. Itno and Djamous were arrested and killed. Since all three were ethnic Zaghawa, Habré started a targeted campaign against the group which saw hundreds seized, tortured, and imprisoned. Dozens died in detention or were summarily executed. In 2016, Habré was convicted of war crimes by a specially created international tribunal in Senegal. Déby gave the Libyans detailed information about CIA operations in Chad. Gaddafi offered Déby military aid to seize power in Chad in exchange for Libyan prisoners of war. Déby relocated to Sudan in 1989 and formed the Patriotic Salvation Movement, an