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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 km: 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. During the years
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.
Oil Revenues to Be Used to Improve Quality of Life
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 were concerned
that the project would only benefit the oil companies and the political
elite in Cameroon and Chad. The World Bank, however, 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 was 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.) Over 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 under supplied 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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