Chad

Full name of country: Republic of Chad

Region: Africa

Official language: French, Arabic

Population: 19,093,595 (2024 est.)

Nationality: Chadian(s) (noun), Chadian (adjective)

Land area: 1,259,200 sq km (486,180 sq miles)

Water area: 24,800 sq km (9,575 sq miles)

Capital: N'Djamena

National anthem: "La Tchadienne" (The Chadian), by Louis Gidrol and his students/Paul Villard

National holiday: Independence Day, August 11 (1960)

Population growth: 3.01% (2024 est.)

Time zone: UTC+1

Flag: The flag of Chad features three equal vertical stripes of blue, yellow and red. The blue stripes (hoist side) represents the sky, hope, and the well-watered southern region of the country. The yellow symbolizes the sun and desert of the north of Chad. The red stands for progress, unity, and sacrifice.

Independence: August 11, 1960 (from France)

Government type: presidential republic

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Legal system: mixed legal system of civil and customary law

Chad is a landlocked nation in Central Africa. It borders Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon to the southwest, Niger and Nigeria to the west, and Libya to the north. Known for the uranium-rich Aouzou Strip, Chad was a colony of France from 1913 to 1960. Its people are known as Chadians.

Note: unless otherwise indicated, statistical data in this article is sourced from the CIA World Factbook, as cited in the bibliography.

People and Culture

Population: Chadians are divided into over 200 ethnic groups, among which more than 120 unique languages and dialects are spoken. The northernmost area of the country is dominated by the Toubou people, a clan-based group of nomadic herders. Other groups in the northern part of the country are the Gorane, Zaghawa, Kanembou, and Fulbe.

The Sahel region, in the central area of Chad, borders the Sahara Desert and is populated mostly by groups of Arab Muslims. Most of the Sahel region’s Arab groups, which include the Maba people, are nomadic herders.

Black African ethnic groups dominate Chad’s southern region. The Sara people are the largest ethnic group in the south (and the country as a whole), followed by the Kanembu/Bornu/Buduma, Arab, Wadai/Maba/Masalit/Mimi, Gorane, and Masa/Musseye/Musgum. About 30.5 percent of all Chadians are Sara (2014–15 estimate). There is also a very small minority French population living in Chad, a legacy of the French colonial period.

Islam and Christianity are the nation’s two most prominent religions. According to the 2014–15 census, more than half of Chadians practice Islam, with just over 44 percent practicing Christianity (about 23.9 percent are Protestant and 20 percent are Roman Catholic).

For the most part, Islam is practiced in the northern regions, while Christianity is confined to the south. A small proportion of the population practices traditional African religions such as animism.

Ethnic disputes between the north and south are common. Civil war has broken out several times in Chad since independence in 1960, mostly over issues of government representation. In an effort to combat rebellions in the Darfur region of Sudan, the Sudanese government and Janjaweed militia groups have driven hundreds of thousands of political refugees into eastern Chad. The Sudanese refugees are not included in Chad’s population estimate.

The capital and largest city in Chad is N’Djamena, with 1.592 million people in 2023. Located in the southwest on the Nigerian border, N’Djamena is divided into a modernized wealthy community (the remnants of the French colonial period), and a poorer residential section with mud-brick dwellings. Due to extensive civil warfare in the twentieth century, many parts of N’Djamena remain in ruins.

Other major cities in Chad are Abéché, the former capital of the ancient Ouaddaï Sultanate; Gaoui, which is built on the ruins of the capital of the Sao Kingdom of the first century BCE; the trading town of Mao; an agricultural settlement called Kélo; Moundou, center of the Sara people and the site of the Gala Beer Brewery; and Sarh, the country’s cotton and sugarcane center.

Native People: Many rock paintings and engravings have been found in Chad. These paintings indicate that the area was inhabited as early as 5000 BCE.

The Toubou, the Tuareg, and many other Chadian ethnic groups in the north are descended from the Berber people. Berbers came to Central Africa around 3000 BCE, and today primarily inhabit countries west of Chad. Arabs came to Chad near the beginning of the twelfth century.

Although they are the majority among the Black groups in the south, the Sara people have continually been abused by other groups in Chad. Arab traders from the north and European colonists enslaved and exploited the Sara for centuries. The Sara continue to face discrimination from non-Black Chadians, despite the fact that the nation’s first post-colonial president was Saran.

Education: Primary education in Chad is compulsory for students up to age twelve. In the early 1980s, civil war caused the destruction of many of Chad’s public schools. The education system remains inadequate. Overcrowding and a low number of trained teachers are the most significant problems. The adult literacy rate, measured among Chadians age fifteen and older who can read and write either French or Arabic, is 26.8 percent (2021 estimate)—among the lowest in Africa.

Arab Muslims established Quranic secondary schools throughout Chad, which teach the Arabic language and the Islamic religion to students. The Ecole Mohamed Illech is among the nation’s Quranic secondary schools. Chad’s only university is the University of N’Djamena.

Health Care: Health care and services in Chad are substandard. The largest and busiest hospital in the country is in N’Djamena, but the facility is regarded as unsafe and unclean. Chadians are at high risk for contracting a number of infections and diseases, including meningitis, protozoal diarrhea, malaria, schistosomiasis, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, and HIV.

Landmines left over from the civil war pose a serious threat to the safety of Chadians, particularly along the disputed Aouzou Strip. Life expectancy is estimated at 62 years for women and 58.1 years for men (2024 estimate).

Chad was ranked 189 out of 193 countries on the 2022 United Nations Human Development Index, which measures quality of life indicators.

Food: Many meals in Chad include rice and beans, and often feature meats such as liver, chicken, and fish. Peanuts and grains such as millet are staples of the Chadian diet. Omelets, salads, soups, and stews are common as well. One common Chadian dish is nachif, which features minced meat and sauce. Tropical fruits such as mangoes and bananas are a central part of Chadian cuisine.

Gala beer, brewed in Kélo; Moundou, is the nation’s most popular alcoholic beverage. Beer is also brewed from millet. Soft drinks and a frozen fruit drink called jus are also widely drunk.

Arts & Entertainment: Indigenous art in Chad begins with cave paintings and fossilized tools. N’Djamena’s Musée National contains many of these paleontological discoveries. The Sao-Kotoko Museum in Gaoui features artifacts salvaged from the ancient Sao Kingdom. Traditional African crafts, such as baskets, mats, dyed cloths, and masks, are featured at N’Djamena’s Centre Artisanal.

In N’Djamena, traditional Arab music is commonly played by musicians belonging to an Arab caste called griot. The traditional griot music typically involves folk narratives about the history of Chad. A popular Chadian band called Tibesti played a style of African folk music known as sai. Other popular musicians are guitarist Ahmed Pecos and the Sahel group African Melody.

Joseph Brahim Seid is perhaps the most notable Chadian author. His works include Au Tchad sous les étoiles (1962) and Un enfant du Tchad (1967).

Chad’s most popular sport, and one of the nation’s only professionally played sports, is football (soccer). Nambatingue Tokomon, a Chadian football player in France, was one of the country’s most famous athletes. He retired in 1986. Other popular sports include basketball, boxing, and wrestling.

Holidays: Chad’s national holiday is Independence Day, which is celebrated on August 11. Other public holidays include Africa Freedom Day (May 25), Republic Day (November 28) and the Day of Liberty (December 1). Christian and Muslim holidays are also observed by Chadians throughout the year.

Environment and Geography

Topography: Chad is divided into a mountainous northern region, the Sahel region in the center, and the Soudanian region in the south. The main topographical feature in Chad is the Tibesti Massif, a mountain range in the northeast. In this range is Emi Koussi, the country’s highest peak at 3,445 meters (11,303 feet).

Chad contains several lakes, the largest of which is Lake Chad. Located in the southeast, it was once one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world. Lake Chad doubles in size during the wet season, and often shrinks significantly during dry spells. A Sahelian drought in 1984 caused the lake to disappear completely. Other major lakes include Lac Fitri in the south and Lac Yao in the north.

The Chari and the Logone are Chad’s two main rivers. Both are located in the Soudanian zone in the south and flow into Lake Chad.

Natural Resources: Chad’s most important natural resource is the Aouzou Strip. This piece of land that forms the border between Chad and Libya contains large deposits of valuable uranium. Libya controlled and exploited the Aouzou Strip from 1977 to 1987, during which time the two nations used military force to fight for ownership of the region. Chad and Libya signed treaties in 1989 and 1994, and Chad has maintained ownership ever since.

Chad’s southern Doba Basin contains a deposit of roughly 1 billion barrels of oil. Despite the efforts of national organizations such as the United Nations to restrict exploitation in the Doba Basin, Chad has been using the oil as an important economic resource.

In addition to oil and uranium, other significant natural resources in Chad include natron (hydrated sodium carbonate), kaolin, fish, gold, limestone, sand, gravel and salt.

Plants & Animals: Zakouma National Park is the only national park in Chad and contains much of the country’s wildlife. However, many animals at Zakouma have been killed by poachers and warfare. With assistance from the European Union, the Chadian government has restocked the park with many of its indigenous species. Chad’s native animals include elephants, giraffes, wildebeests, monkeys, lions, and antelopes.

Many varieties of trees are found in Chad’s forests. The area surrounding Lake Chad is the most densely forested, and contains ebony, kapok, acacias, baobab, desert palms, date palms, and jujubes.

Climate: Like its topography, Chad’s climate is divided into three zones. The Soudanian zone experiences an average temperature of 23° Celsius (73° Fahrenheit). The temperature in the Sahelian region often reaches 45° Celsius (113° Fahrenheit).

Chad receives an annual average of 50 centimeters (20 inches) of rain in the central region and 114 centimeters (45 inches) in the southern region. Rainfall is scarce in the northern zone, which contains part of the Sahara and the Tibesti Massif. Most of the country’s rain comes during the wet season, which occurs in the months between July and September.

The most prevalent natural hazard in Chad is the harmattan, which is a strong, often dangerous desert wind. Long droughts in the Sahelian region have caused extensive desertification and inhibit the growth of vegetation throughout the central region. Plagues of locusts and severely high temperatures are among other natural hazards.

Economy

Chad is one of Africa’s poorest nations. Its developing economy is highly dependent on foreign aid. In 2000, the country began expanding its oil pipelines; this effort was expected to boost the economy significantly. Despite these efforts, most of the population relies on subsistence farming. In 2023, the gross domestic product (GDP) was an estimated US$32.446 billion, with GDP per capita estimated at roughly $1,700. About 42.3 percent of Chad's population lives below the poverty line (2018 estimate).

In the mid-2010s Chad suffered from a recession that was due in part to low oil prices. In 2018 the government instituted an emergency action plan to diversify the economy and offset the loss of oil revenue.

Industry: The leading export in Chad is oil, which provided approximately 86 percent of the country’s export revenues in 2018, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC).

Most of Chad’s industrial activity is in the manufacturing sector. Manufactured products include cotton, textiles, beer, sodium carbonate, soap, cigarettes, and construction materials.

The country’s leading non-oil exports are gold, cotton, cattle, gum Arabic, sesame, and shea butter. Imported commodities include machinery and transportation equipment, industrial goods, food, and textiles. Chad’s main trading partners are the United States, China, France, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, and India (2019).

Agriculture: Nearly 80 percent of the Chadian labor force are subsistence farmers (2006 estimate); most farming consists of livestock herding. The most common livestock are sheep, goats and camels.

Because of the focus on subsistence agriculture, Chad’s agricultural sector is not as important to the economy as the industrial sector. Chad’s major cash crops include cotton, sorghum, millet, peanuts, sesame, corn, rice, potatoes, and manioc, much of which is consumed domestically.

Tourism: Outbreaks of guerrilla warfare in the Tibesti Massif have made the northern part of Chad unsafe for visitors. Chad’s government has placed restrictions on the region, barring travelers from leaving specific areas of the country. Areas in the south and the west, including the Cameroonian border, are also closed to travelers. In January 2019, the US Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs issued a level 3 travel advisory to US citizens to reconsider travel to Chad due to crime, terrorism, and minefields.

Visitors to Chad tend to remain in N’Djamena. The Musée National and Centre Artisanal are popular attractions. The wildlife at Zakouma National Park attracts visitors as well.

Because Chad is politically unstable and there is a lack of security for foreign visitors, tourism is uncommon and total revenues remain low, at 3.2 percent of total GDP in 2022.

Government

Chad is a presidential republic. The president, elected by popular vote, is the head of state and highest executive authority. The Council of Ministers is the president’s appointed cabinet. The council is overseen by the president, who also became the head of government following the elimination of the prime minister position with the 2018 constitution.

A 188-member elected parliament, which is known as the National Assembly, comprises the legislative branch. The judicial branch consists of a Supreme Court, Constitutional Council, High Court of Justice, Courts of Appeal, tribunals, and justices of the peace.

The age of suffrage in Chad is eighteen. Although Chad is a democracy, its government is characterized by oppression, corruption, and human rights violations.

Chad experienced extensive civil warfare throughout the twentieth century. Upon gaining independence from France in 1960, a Saran southerner named François Tomballage became the nation’s first president. Tomballage oppressed Chadians by arresting political dissenters and banning any political parties from forming oppositions to his presidency.

In 1975, General Malloum assassinated Tomballage and became the new dictator alongside Hissène Habré, with whom he formed the Government of National Unity in the south. Habré eventually became the dominant figure, pushing Malloum out of power.

Escalating disputes between dissenters and supporters led to a full-scale civil war in 1979 between the Muslim north and the Christian south. A dispute at N’Djamena led to the organized massacre of thousands of Chadian civilians.

The opposition in the north was led by Goukouni Oueddei, the son of a tribal chief. In 1980, France and Libya intervened, supporting Habré and Oueddei respectively. Both sides agreed to remove their troops in an unofficial cease-fire in 1987. Libya broke the agreement and attacked Habré. Chadian soldiers then forced Libya back over the border, and the country was relatively peaceful for the next few years.

In 1990, a Muslim warlord named Idriss Déby mobilized an army that attacked Habré, who fled to Senegal. Deby assumed leadership of Chad and rigged elections to keep himself in office. A former minister of Deby’s named Youssouf Togoimi formed the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT) and launched a rebellion in 1998. However, Deby remained in power, tampering with election results to win the presidency again in 2001. He was reelected to his fifth term in 2016, and served a one-year term as Chairperson of the African Union Assembly that ended in January 2017.

Foreign relations with Libya improved significantly in the early twenty-first century, and peace accords between the MDJT and the National Resistance Army were signed in 2003. However, guerrilla rebellions and raids are still common, particularly in the Tibesti Massif. Chad is home to hundreds of thousands of political refugees who have fled Sudan’s Darfur region since conflict broke out there in February 2004.

After being attacked by Boko Haram, an Islamist terrorist group, on several occasions in 2015, the government instituted a state of emergency in the Lake Chad region. Another separatist group opposed to Déby's rule, the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), was formed in 2016 by Mahamat Mahadi Ali, a Libya-backed fighter who had previously been involved with other anti-Déby groups. In subsequent years, FACT collaborated with other separatist organizations to fight against government forces, leading to further instability in Chad.

On April 11, 2021, the day of Chad's presidential election, FACT launched a major offensive in the northern part of the country. Déby was declared the winner of this election on April 19, granting him a sixth term in office, but was killed the following day while observing fighting between government forces and FACT soldiers. A military council quickly named Déby's son, General Mahamat Idriss Déby, as the head of a new interim military government, in a move that went against Chad's constitution. The new government soon suspended the constitution and replaced it with a new charter. Although General Déby promised to hold democratic elections in October 2022, the elections were later delayed by two years.

Chad's military ruler Mahamat Déby was declared the official winner of the May 2024 presidential elections, legitimising his grip on power.

Interesting Facts

• Chad is sometimes known as the “Babel Tower of the world,” because its people speak more than one hundred different languages.
• The world’s oldest hominin skull, which is roughly 7 million years old, was found in Chad and is on display at the Musée National (Chad National Museum) in N’Djamena.
• N’Djamena was formerly known as Fort-Lamy.
• In 2018, Chad became one of the first African nations to accede to the UN Water Convention.

Bibliography

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Taub, Ben. “Lake Chad: The World’s Most Complex Humanitarian Disaster.” The New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2017, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/04/lake-chad-the-worlds-most-complex-humanitarian-disaster. Accessed 26 May 2022.