An Introduction to Chad

Since its independence from France in 1960, Chad has been intermittently wracked by internal and international conflicts. As a result of the violence and lack of development, Chad today is ranked fifth poorest country by the United Nations’ Human Development Index. Life expectancy (42 years for men, 45 years for women) is amongst the lowest in the world, there is only one doctor per 38,000 people and foreign aid accounts for around 30% of the national budget.

Its population of over 10 million is made up of a variety of over 200 different ethnic and linguistic groups. The Sara account for around one third of the country’s population, while otther major population groups include the Arabs, accounting for around a quarter of the population, the Maba and the Tubu. Islam, predominant in the north, and Christianity, the religion of the south, are the two major religions while French and Arabic are the official languages. The capital is N’Djamena, situated near the Western border with Nigeria and Cameroon, which has a population of 721,000.

It is currently estimated by USAID that there are 112,000 IDPs, nearly double that of October 2006. Additionally, the country is home to 234,000 Sudanese and 50,000 CAR refugees. As a result of existing disturbances, it is calculated that 700,000 of the host population are affected.

In the past two years, the political and humanitarian situation in Chad has seriously deteriorated as a result of Chadian rebel activity, cross-border attacks from Sudanese-backed militias and growing inter-communal violence. Displaced Chadians as well as Darfuri and Central African Republic refugees in Eastern Chad are in particular danger from cross-border attacks and recruitment into rebel and militia groups.

Recent armed violence directed against Chad’s current leader, President Idriss Déby, increased in intensity in late 2005 when waves of defections from the Chadian national armed forces reinforced several Chadian rebel movements.

Both the governments of Chad and Sudan have been supporting and arming rebel groups in pursuit of wider political objectives and military goals. Indeed, the government of Sudan has backed Chadian rebels and militia groups in Darfur and the government of Chad has supported Sudanese rebel groups in eastern Chad, which in turn have supported the creation of self-defence groups at the community level in Chad. Pre-existing inter-communal tensions mainly between sedentary farmers and nomadic herders over water and pasture have led to a further deterioration of the security situation.

Eager to protect the capital from incursions by rebel groups, the Chadian government has left a security vacuum along the eastern border. As a result, Chadian civilians, Sudanese refugees and international humanitarian organisations operating in the area have been left with no protection from cross-border attacks by Janjaweed militias and other armed groups.

Divide and Rule: The Colonial Period (1897 – 1960)

Before French colonial rule, what is now known as Chad was made up of a heterogeneous ensemble of different ethnic groups. The northern Maba and Tubu groups largely dominated and enslaved the groups in the south, including the Sara. This period of enslavement which only formally ended in 1926 is at the origin of ethnic tensions which have lasted to date.

Although slavery was eventually stopped during the colonial period, the south of the country suffered the greatest burden of the colonial period. While the north’s cultural, economic and political situation was left substantially unchanged, the south, on the other hand, was faced with high taxation, military recruitment and forced labour. By the 1950s the people in the south were paying six times as much tax per person as their compatriots in the north.

Furthermore there were 20 000 Chadians fighting for the Allies in World War II, the vast majority of whom were Sara. Chadians were also forced to work in a number in projects throughout French Africa, most infamously in the construction of the Congo-Brazzaville railroad where working conditions were so dreadful that at least 50% of the 50 000 strong workforce died. Once again the great burden of this task fell upon the Sara in the south of the country.

The period of French colonial rule was based on violence, brutality and coercion and was accompanied by unprecedented migration and lawlessness. Furthermore, it greatly contributed to exacerbating existing tensions between the traditionally dominant Islamic north and the Christian south and it left Chad as the least developed of the Francophone nations with the lowest number of educated citizens and a very poor infrastructure. As a result, the post colonial era has been one fraught with civil conflict and instability.

August 10th 1960: A Difficult Independence

While the south suffered harsher treatment at the hands of the French, it was also the region where colonial investment was greater. As a result, the Christian south was better placed to take control of the country when Chad achieved independence in August 1960.

The first president of newly independent Chad was Francois Tombalbaye, a Sara from the region of the South East and a Christian from the Parti Progressiste Tchadien (PPT). Under his rule, all political parties apart from the PPT were banned, opposition ministers were arrested and a State of Emergency was declared in 1964. Tombalbaye’s marginalisation of the north and his violent methods reached a peak in 1965 with a government sanctioned massacre of 500 Mubi.

By the late 1960s discontent had spread throughout the country and militias supported by Libya began to grow in size as Tombalbaye’s grip on the presidency became increasingly tenuous. By 1969 the security situation was so bad that the president had no choice but to ask the French to honour their military pact and provide support to him against the increasingly popular rebels.

But the troops and resources offered were limited and an attack on N’Djamena airport in June 1973 provided further warning that Chad was moving closer to overwhelming civil conflict. Two years later, in April 1975, Tombalbaye was assassinated in a military coup to the relief of the majority of Chadians.

Coups and Conflicts: The Wasted Decades

Rather than ushering in a new era of cooperation and progress, the new Sara president, General Malloum, did little to reverse the autocratic, ethnically exclusive policies of the former president. Having cut ties with France and expelled the French troops, Malloum became more vulnerable to attacks from the Libyan-supported northern rebel groups such as FROLINAT which were continuing to grow in strength and achieved significant military victories from 1978. In an act of desperation Malloum asked the French to return and gave Hissein Habre, the northern rebel leader of the Force Armees du Nord (FAN), the position of Prime Minister.

But neither of these actions could stem the rapidly increasing tensions within Chad and in February 1979 the capital erupted into a highly destructive civil war. Five thousand people were killed and a further seventy thousand fled to neighbouring Cameroon as a result of the fighting that broke out in N’Djamena between Government forces and Habre’s FAN.

The French forces stood by as fighting spread to the north with Sara commanders ordering the massacre of 10 000 Arabs and Mubi. By the end of March 1979 Chad was effectively divided into four autonomous sections with huge regional and religious tensions. Malloum attempted to reduce these tensions by forming a cabinet consisting of an equal amount of northerners, Muslims, southerners and Christians and various peace deals were signed. But by March 1980 the uneasy peace came to an end as once again N’Djamena erupted into violence with up to 10 000 people killed in an increasingly vicious nine month conflict. ease

With the departure of the French troops in May 1980, Libya became the dominant external player in Chadian politics and with the support of Gaddafi, Gukuni Webei defeated Hissein Habre and took charge of the new Government of National Union (GNU), ousting Malloum as president. Under Gukuni, Chad and Libya grew closer and in January 1981 the two leaders signed the Treaty of Merger essentially making Chad an Islamic Republic under Libya.

At this point, France, USA, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Francophone African republics, increasingly wary of Gaddafi’s influence, threw their support behind Habre and the FAN. In November 1981, Libya withdrew its troops from Chad and by June 1982 Habre had succeeded in defeating Gukuni and declared Chad’s Third Republic. Gukuni and his troops fled to the north and led to the splitting of the country in two.

In an attempt to secure stability, Habre courted many of his rivals and while he achieved some successes, he ultimately failed to overcome major factional differences and never achieved more than an fragile peace. Furthermore the ruthless treatment of his opponents turned many against him and eventually the French withdrew their support. Shortly after this, in December 1990 Habre’s former trusted lieutenant, Colonel Idris Deby overthrew him in an unopposed military coup.

Democracy and Brutality: An Uncertain Future

Three elections and many attempted coups later, Idris Deby remains in charge and maintains an uneasy peace in a divided country. There have been democratic advances, including the creation of a High Court and a Constitutional Court, the introduction of multi party elections and an increasingly free press. But Chad still remains highly divided along ethnic, cultural, political and regional lines and widespread repression by Deby’s security forces continues.

In 2003 the nation began exporting oil but many early reports suggest that the quest for oil wealth is only fuelling instability. Furthermore, the conflict in neighbouring Darfur has been spreading to Chad since 2004 with Janjaweed militias attacking villages and towns in the east of the country. As a result of cross-border attacks and inter-communal violence, more than 100,000 Chadians IDPs as well as 230,000 Darfuri and 50,000 Central African Republic refugees have taken refuge in 12 camps dotted along Chad’s eastern border.

While peace deals have been signed and 3000 European peacekeepers are expected to be deployed in Chad in late 2007 - early 2008, there is an urgent need for comprehensive peace talks and a return to stability throughout the country.