Chad has had a turbulent history and a state of great instability

A Chadian opposition leader upon his arrival in his country from abroad.

AFP

Chad, the vast, impoverished country in the Sahel region, ruled by a military junta since the death of its president, Idriss Deby, who ruled for 30 years, is considered a strategic ally of the Westerners in the fight against militants.

This country, located in the heart of the Sahel region, covers an area of ​​about 1.3 million square kilometres, and shares borders with Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Libya, Sudan and the Central African Republic.

It has a population of about 16 million (World Bank 2019), more than half of whom are Muslims.

The World Bank says climate change has accelerated desertification and dried up Lake Chad.

Chad has more than one million people in a state of "forced displacement," including more than 580,000 refugees who have fled conflicts in neighboring countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

This former French colony experienced a turbulent history and a state of great instability after independence in 1960, with a rebellion in the north that erupted since 1965.

In 1980, a civil war erupted between supporters of the former Prime Minister of the National Transitional Union, Gokuni Oweidi (supported by Libya) and his Defense Minister Hissein Habré, who took power in 1982.

In 1990, Idriss Déby managed to oust Hissene Habré.

A Chadian commission of inquiry stated that the repression led to the deaths of 40,000 people during the reign of Habré, who was sentenced by an African special court in 2017 to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity.

In February 2008, with French support, the Chadian authorities succeeded in repelling a rebel attack that reached the gates of the presidential palace.

At the beginning of 2019, France helped President Deby by bombing a convoy of Chadian rebels who entered from Libya to the northeast of the country.

In April 2021, President Déby, who was first elected in 1996, died of wounds sustained while leading his army in the fight against the rebels in the north.

He had been re-elected for a sixth presidential term.

His son, General Mohamed Idriss Deby Itno, was declared president, and he assumed the leadership of a transitional military council.

He promised to hold elections within 18 months, after a "comprehensive national dialogue" with the opposition and the many rebel groups to begin on August 20 after several delays.

On August 8, 2022, he signed an agreement in Qatar with about 40 rebel groups to launch a national dialogue.

On August 18, two rebel leaders who had been living in exile for years returned to Chad after trying to overthrow the former president.

Military threats and challenges Chad faces on all its borders.

In the Lake Chad region (west), the army has been battling since 2015 the "Boko Haram" group, which is linked to ISIS.

The Chadian army participates in a multinational joint force supported by the West, and includes Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon.

It also participates in the Five-State Force of the Sahel, along with Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania, while Mali withdrew from it.

France has now kept its anti-militant operation headquarters in N'Djamena, where it launched Operation Barkhane in 2014. Chad is also witnessing persistent conflicts between several population groups in the center and south.

In Mount Tibesti (north), on the border with Libya, the army is facing rebels and illegal gold miners.

Chad is an oil country, but it is poor, and Chad's economy is largely dependent on black gold.

It has been producing oil since 2003, but its production did not exceed 47 million barrels in 2021, according to the Chadian Center for Public Finance.

N'Djamena is currently negotiating a debt restructuring under the G20 initiative to suspend debt service created during the "Covid-19" pandemic.

The African Development Bank said that the "Covid-19" pandemic likely led to an increase in the poverty rate.

In 2018, about 42 percent of the population lived below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

Chad ranks third among the least developed countries in the world.

It has one of the highest maternal mortality rates, and one in five children dies before their fifth birthday, according to the World Bank.

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