Chad is a state in Central Africa. As of June 2021, the country's
population is estimated at 17,414,108. The area of the country is
1,284,000 km², the population density is about 13.56 people per
square kilometer.
The capital is the city of N'Djamena. The
official languages are French and Arabic.
Unitary state,
presidential republic under the control of a military junta. The
post of head of state and chairman of the Transitional Military
Council is Mahamat Debi.
The state is located in a desert and
semi-desert area in Central Africa. The largest landlocked state on
the continent. It borders in the west with Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon,
in the south with the Central African Republic, in the east with
Sudan and Libya in the north.
It is distinguished by
significant ethno-cultural and religious diversity. About half of
the country's population professes Islam (mainly the Sunni
persuasion of the Maliki madhhab), slightly less than half is
Christianity (mainly Catholicism), there is also a small number of
non-believers and pagans in the country. The main peoples are Sara
(Negroid Christians in the south of the country) and Arabs (Semitic
Muslims in the north), but together they make up less than half of
the population.
An agrarian country with a very low human
development index, one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in
the world. The volume of GDP at purchasing power parity is 26.574
billion ($1,618 per capita, 164th place). The monetary unit is the
CFA franc.
Etymology
The toponym "Chad" comes from the hydronym of the same
name - the name of Lake Chad. The hydronym has been known to the Arabs
since the 14th century, its meaning, presumably in the Kanuri language,
is “a large expanse of water”, “lake”.
Physical and geographical
characteristics
The territory of Chad is mostly flat plain. The
northern part is within the Sahara desert. In the north - the Tibesti
highlands with the highest point of the country - 3415 m. In the
northeast - the Erdi and Ennedi plateau (height up to 1450 m), in the
southeast - the Vadai massif (height up to 1666 m).
The climate
of the northern part of the country is tropical desert. The southern
part is equatorial-monsoonal.
There are no permanent rivers in
the north of the country. In the south, the density of the river network
is significant. The main Shari River, which flows into Lake Chad, is
navigable. The rivers overflow widely during the rainy season, flooding
vast areas and turning them into solid swamps, and become very shallow
during the dry season.
The landscape of the northern, Saharan
part of the country is rocky deserts, almost devoid of vegetation,
alternating with sandy deserts with sparse vegetation (tamarix,
undersized acacias, camel thorn). In the oases - date palms, grapes and
wheat are grown. To the south, in the Sahel zone, semi-deserts and
deserted savannahs with sparse grass cover and thickets of thorny shrubs
(mainly acacias), doum palms and baobabs are found. In the extreme south
there are typical savannahs with a high grass cover and forests. In the
floodplains of the rivers and along the shores of the lakes there are
extensive grass swamps.
The desert fauna is poor. There are many
large mammals in the savannas - elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, giraffes,
antelopes. From predatory - lions, leopards, jackals, hyenas. Some
savannah animals are found on the outskirts of the desert zone. Monkeys
(baboons and colobuses) are found in the upper reaches of the Shari
River. Numerous snakes and lizards, insects.
Pre-colonial period
The territory of modern Chad was settled
as a result of the mass migration of people around 7000 BC. It
occurred in connection with the improvement of natural conditions on
the territory of the future state. The most important archaeological
sites in Chad are located in the former region of
Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti (now 3 different regions). Some of these
monuments are older than 2000 BC. The Chadian basin has been
inhabited by settled people since about the same year. The region
has become a crossroads of civilizations and cultures. The earliest
of these, Sao, is known for its few artifacts and oral history. This
civilization fell under the onslaught of the Kanem Empire, the first
and longest-running empire in the Sahelian strip of Chad, which
arose around 1000 AD.
In the 16th-17th centuries AD, two new
states arose on the territory of Chad - the Bagirmi Sultanate and
the Vadai Empire. The power of these states was based on control
over the trans-Saharan trade routes that ran through the region.
These states were Muslim. They never extended their power to the
territory of the modern south of Chad, where the Negro tribes lived,
who professed the cult of ancestors, but they carried out raids on
this territory in order to capture slaves. Slaves made up about a
third of the population of these countries.
colonial period
French colonial expansion led to the creation in 1900 of a colony in
this territory, which was called the Territoire Militaire des Pays
et Protectorats du Tchad. In 1920, the states were completely
conquered by the French and incorporated into French Equatorial
Africa. This government was characterized by the absence of a policy
of unification of the territory and attempts to build
national-religious unity, as well as slower modernization compared
to other colonies of the country. The French government primarily
viewed the colony as a source of an insignificant, poorly trained
labor force to develop raw cotton: France introduced large-scale
production of this raw material in 1929. The colonial administration
was understaffed, and those that were were the "dregs" of the French
state machine, which had nowhere else to send. Only the Sar people
in the south of the country, who converted to Catholicism, were
relatively effectively governed: the presence in the Islamic north
of the country was actually nominal.
After World War II,
France granted Chad the status of an overseas territory in its
composition. The inhabitants of the country were given the
opportunity to elect their own representatives to the national
assemblies (parliaments) of France and Chad itself. The largest
political force was the Progressive Party of Chad, whose
headquarters was located in the southern, Christian part of the
colony. It was at the head of this party and its protege Francois
Tombalbay, an ethnic Sara and a Christian by faith, that Chad gained
independence on August 11, 1960.
period of independence
Two years after gaining independence, the President of Chad
introduced a one-party system of government, banning opposition
parties. His authoritarian rule, coupled with absolute
mismanagement, exacerbated inter-ethnic and inter-religious tensions
in the country. In 1965, in the north of the country, the Muslim
rebel group the National Liberation Front of Chad (French: Front de
libération nationale du Tchad, FROLINAT) unleashed a civil war. In
1975, President Tombalbay was overthrown and assassinated in a
military coup. The country was led by General Felix Mallum, who
tried to end the civil war. However, the uprising continued, and
when in 1979 the rebels led by Hissen Habré captured the capital,
the country collapsed. In the north, a large number of groups were
organized that fought among themselves for power. The country de
facto collapsed. This led to the collapse of French power, which
relied on the Christian government. "Vacuum" tried to fill Muammar
Gaddafi, because of which Libya was involved in a civil war in the
country. This adventure of the Libyan government ended in a real
disaster in 1987, when France nevertheless supported Hissein Habré,
who was able to unite under his control many disparate groups,
including Christians, and ousted the Libyans from his territory.
Habré established an even more brutal and totalitarian regime
than his predecessor. His system of power rested on a group of
military and associates who turned Chad into one of the most corrupt
countries in the world, and also maintained their power through mass
violence. It is estimated that several tens of thousands of people
were killed during the junta's rule. The president has also
exacerbated ethnic tensions by favoring his own nationality, the
tuba, in cases, and by discriminating against former Zaghawa Muslim
allies. He was overthrown by his own general, Idris Deby, in 1990.
At the same time, he tried to hold Habré accountable for his
actions. The former ruler of Chad was put under house arrest in
Senegal in 2005. In 2013, Habré was formally charged with war crimes
committed during his reign. In May 2016, he was found guilty of
crimes against humanity, in particular rape, sexual slavery and
organizing the murder of more than 40 thousand people, for which he
was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Once in power, Deby
attempted to reconcile the rebel groups among themselves and with
his government, for which the multi-party system was reintroduced. A
new constitution was approved in a referendum, and in 1996 the first
competitive elections since the colonial government were held, in
which Déby won. Five years later, he won a second victory and went
to the second term, according to the constitution. In 2003, the
development of oil fields began in Chad. However, it did not bring
prosperity - this factor only intensified internal political and
interethnic disagreements, which started a new civil war. At the
same time, Deby, without a referendum and agreement with parliament,
unilaterally changed the country's constitution, abolishing the
limitation of presidential terms. This step caused a wave of
indignation both in society and among the opposition.
In 2006
new elections were held in the midst of a civil war, boycotted by
the opposition. By that time, the percentage of victims of ethnic
violence in relation to the overall death rate in the country had
increased; The UN High Commissioner has warned that ethnic cleansing
or a Darfur-like genocide could begin in Chad. In the same year, the
rebels attempted to capture the capital of the country, but failed.
Two years later, a second unsuccessful attempt to seize power took
place. Sudan also participated in this war until January 15, 2010,
when a ceasefire agreement was signed. Thanks to this, the joint
forces of the two countries were deployed to secure the border, and
a number of Chadian and Sudanese military returned home. In 2013, a
military coup against President Déby, which had been in preparation
for several months, was thwarted.
On April 20, 2021, the
President of Chad died in a clash with rebels from the Front for
Change and Accord. His son, Mahamat Idris Debi Itno, abolished the
constitution and headed the Transitional Military Council, taking
over both the powers of the president and the commander-in-chief of
the army.