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Travel to Chad — Unbiased reviews and great deals
from TripAdvisorChad
| Republic of Chad National
name: République du Tchad President: Idriss Déby (1990) Prime Minister: Youssouf Saleh Abbas
(2008)
Current government officials
Land area: 486,178 sq mi (1,259,201 sq
km); total area: 495,755 sq mi (1,284,000 sq km) Population (2008 est.): 10,111,337 (growth
rate: 2.1%); birth rate: 41.6/1000; infant mortality rate: 100.3/1000;
life expectancy: 47.4; density per sq mi: 8
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
N'Djamena, 609,600 Monetary unit: CFA Franc
Languages:
French, Arabic (both official); Sara; more than
120 languages and dialects
Ethnicity/race:
200 distinct groups. North and center, mostly
Muslim: Arabs, Gorane (Toubou, Daza, Kreda), Zaghawa, Kanembou,
Ouaddai, Baguirmi, Hadjerai, Fulbe, Kotoko, Hausa, Boulala, and Maba.
South, mostly Christian or animist: Sara (Ngambaye, Mbaye, Goulaye),
Moundang, Moussei, Massa
National Holiday:
Independence Day, August 11
Religions:
Islam 51%, Christian 35%, animist 7%, other
7% Literacy rate: 25.7% (2006
est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP
(2007 est.): $15.9 billion; per capita $1,200. Real growth
rate: 0.6%. Inflation: -8.8%. Unemployment: n.a.
Arable land: 3%. Agriculture: cotton, sorghum, millet,
peanuts, rice, potatoes, manioc (tapioca); cattle, sheep, goats,
camels. Labor force: n.a.; agriculture 80%; industry and
services 20% (subsistence farming, herding, and fishing).
Industries: oil, cotton textiles, meatpacking, beer brewing,
natron (sodium carbonate), soap, cigarettes, construction
materials. Natural resources: petroleum (unexploited but
exploration under way), uranium, natron, kaolin, fish (Lake Chad),
gold, limestone, sand and gravel, salt. Exports: $4.342 billion
f.o.b. (2006 est.): cotton, cattle, gum arabic, oil. Imports:
$823.1 million f.o.b. (2006 est.): machinery and transportation
equipment, industrial goods, foodstuffs, textiles. Major trading
partners: U.S., China, Portugal, France, Cameroon, Germany,
Belgium (2004). Communications:
Telephones: main lines in use: 13,000 (2004); mobile cellular:
210,000 (2005). Radio broadcast stations: AM 2, FM 4, shortwave
5 (2002). Television broadcast stations: 1 (2002). Internet
hosts: 9 (2006) . Internet users: 35,000 (2005). Transportation: Railways: 0 km.
Highways: total: 33,400 km; paved: 267 km; unpaved: 33,133 km
(1999 est.). Waterways: Chari and Legone rivers are navigable
only in wet season (2002). Ports and harbors: none.
Airports: 52 (2006 est.). International disputes: since 2003, Janjawid
armed militia and Sudanese military have driven about 200,000 Darfur
region refugees into eastern Chad; Chad remains an important mediator
in the Sudanese civil conflict; Chadian Aozou rebels reside in
southern Libya; only Nigeria and Cameroon have heeded the Lake Chad
Commission's admonition to ratify the delimitation treaty which also
includes Chad and Niger.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
A landlocked country in north-central Africa,
Chad is about 85% the size of Alaska. Its neighbors are Niger, Libya, the
Sudan, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Nigeria. Lake Chad,
from which the country gets its name, lies on the western border with
Niger and Nigeria. In the north is a desert that runs into the Sahara.
Government
Republic.
History
The area around Lake Chad has been inhabited
since at least 500 B.C. In the 8th century
A.D. Berbers began migrating to the area. Islam
arrived in 1085, and by the 16th century a trio of rival kingdoms
flourished: the Kanem-Bornu, Baguirmi, and Ouaddaï. In 1883–1893, all
three kingdoms came under the rule of the Sudanese conqueror Rabih
al-Zubayr. In 1900, Rabih was overthrown by the French, who absorbed these
kingdoms into the colony of French Equatorial Africa, as part of
Ubangi-Shari (now the Central African Republic), in 1913. In 1946, the
territory, now known as Chad, became an autonomous republic within the
French Community. An independence movement led by the first premier and
president, François (later Ngarta) Tombalbaye, achieved complete
independence on Aug. 11, 1960. Tombalbaye was killed in the 1975 coup and
succeeded by Gen. Félix Malloum, who faced a Libyan-financed civil war
throughout his tenure in office. In 1977, Libya seized a strip of Chadian
land and launched an invasion two years later.
Nine rival groups meeting in Lagos, Nigeria, in
March 1979 agreed to form a provisional government headed by Goukouni
Oueddei, a former rebel leader. Fighting broke out again in Chad in March
1980, when Defense Minister Hissen Habré challenged Goukouni and seized
the capital. Libyan president Muammar al-Qaddafi, in Jan. 1981, proposed a
merger of Chad with Libya. The Libyan proposal was rejected and Libyan
troops withdrew from Chad that year, but in 1983 they poured back into the
northern part of the country in support of Goukouni. France, in turn, sent
troops into southern Chad in support of Habré. Government troops then
launched an offensive in early 1987 that drove the Libyans out of most of
the country.
In 1990, Idriss Déby, a former defense minister
and head of the Patriotic Salvation Movement, overthrew Habré, suspended
the constitution, and dissolved the legislature. In 1994 a new
constitution was drafted and an amnesty for political prisoners was
declared. Déby won multiparty elections in 1996 and was reelected in 2001.
His rule has been marked by repression and corruption. Déby has faced
about a half-dozen insurgencies since taking office.
In June 2000 the World Bank agreed to provide
more than $200 million to build a $3.7-billion pipeline connecting the oil
fields in Chad to those in Cameroon. Oil revenues are estimated to earn
$2.5 billion over the next 30 years. Human rights groups are concerned
they will only benefit the oil companies and the political elite in
Cameroon and Chad. The World Bank, however, has forced Chad to agree to
spend 80% of the resulting oil revenues on education, health,
infrastructure, and other social welfare projects desperately needed by
this impoverished country. The deal has been hailed as a novel approach to
ensuring that developing countries with authoritarian governments manage
to spend revenues to alleviate the poverty of their people rather than
enrich its elite. (In 2005, Transparency International listed Chad as the
world's most corrupt country.) In the next 25 years Chad is expected to
make $80 million per year, increasing the government treasury by 50%. But
in 2006, after the pipeline was completed, Déby reneged on the deal with
the World Bank, saying he would spend the oil revenues to finance the
military, to buttress his nearly insolvent government, and to shore up his
fragile hold on power. In response, the World Bank suspended its loans and
froze Chad's bank accounts. In May the World Bank and Chad reached a
compromise: Chad's government would receive 30% of the oil revenues,
instead of the 10% originally agreed to, and the remaining 70% of revenues
would be spent exclusively on programs to alleviate the country's
poverty.
By 2006, about 250,000 Sudanese refugees had
fled to Chad to escape the fighting in Sudan's Darfur region, where they
face hunger and disease in desperately undersupplied refugee camps. In
April 2006, a coup to oust Déby was averted with the help of French troops
stationed in the country. Opposition parties boycotted the May
presidential elections, and Déby retained the presidency.
Prime Minister Pascal Yoadimnadji died in
February 2007. President Déby named Delwa Kassire Koumakoye as his
successor.
Rebels from three groups stormed N'Djamena in
February 2008 and demanded the resignation of President Déby. Chad's
military, however, repulsed the rebels. Leaders in Chad accused Sudan of
fomenting the rebellion, and tension between the two countries escalated.
About 100 people died in the fighting. In April, Déby fired Prime Minister
Delwa Kassire Koumakoye and replaced him with Youssouf Saleh Abbas.
See also Encyclopedia: Chad.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Chad
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
More on Chad from Infoplease:
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