Indications of population around the shores of Lake Chad date back to Neolithic times. The shores were an important junction for several major trans-Saharan caravan routes for centuries. From the 11th to the 15th century, the state of Kanem was the dominant force in the region, occupying much of the area that makes up present-day Chad. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the state of Borno, which had its center on the other side of Lake Chad (in present-day Nigeria), exercised a major influence. A gradual process of Islamization took place in the region from this time, especially during the 16th and
17th centuries during the kingdoms of the Bagirmi and Ouaddai. The slave trade was a key component of their economies and as this declined from the early 19th century onwards, so did the kingdoms. In the 1880s, riven by internecine feuding, they were conquered by the Sudanese warlord Rabih al-Zubair. The Europeans arrived a few decades later, in the latter stages of their carve-up of the African continent.
Chad was first defined as a national territory in 1910, as one of the four making up French Equatorial Africa. Chad achieved independence in 1960 with François Tombalbaye, leader of the Parti Progressiste Tchadien (PPT), as Prime Minister. Its history since then has been characterized by political instability and tensions, largely due to religious and cultural divisions between the Muslim north and Christian/animist south – a pattern that may be found in many other African countries, including Nigeria and Sudan.
The northern rebels organized the Front de Libération Nationale du Tchad (FROLINAT). Tombalbaye was killed in a military coup in 1975 and the new regime sought a settlement with FROLINAT, who refused, and launched a successful offensive three years later, giving them control of the country. Within months of taking power, FROLINAT had split into factions around the movement’s leader and national President Goukouni Oueddei (backed by Libya), and Defence Minister Hissène Habré (backed by the French and, subsequently, the Americans). Fighting between supporters of the two factions escalated into full-scale war until 1982 when Habré’s forces captured the capital and installed him as President. Habré’s regime lasted until 1990 when he was overthrown by the former army commander, Idriss Déby.
Since taking power, Déby has managed to stabilize the political situation to some extent and install a working democratic constitution. Déby himself was elected to the Presidency by a comfortable majority in 1996. That result was repeated, despite some complaints over irregularities, at the most recent poll in May 2001. Déby’s political vehicle, the Mouvement Patriotique du Salut (MPS), controls the National Assembly, with a sizeable opposition party in the form of the Union pour le Renouveau et la Démocratie (URD) led by Wadal Abdelkader Kamougue. The main extra-Parliamentary opposition is the Mouvement pour la Démocratie and la Justice au Tchad (MDJT), led by Déby’s ex-Defence Minister, Youssouf Toigimi, which launched an armed rebellion in the northern Tibesti region in October 1998, although its potency has diminished following serious injuries to Toigimi suffered in August 2002.
In 2003 and 2004, unrest in neighboring Sudan's Dafur region spilled across the border, along with thousands of refugees.
The discovery of large oil deposits in the southern Doba region of the country (see Economy section) has provided the Government with an opportunity to develop the economy. It has also heightened interest in Chad – a relative international backwater – from outside, and has led to some improvement to previously rocky relations with France, the USA, and international institutions such as the World Bank.
Government
Under the terms of the constitution adopted by national referendum in March 1996, the President is directly elected for a five-year term and holds executive power, assisted by an appointed Prime Minister and Cabinet. Legislative power is vested in a bicameral legislature, comprising the 125-strong National Assembly, which is directly elected for a four-year term in a mixture of single-member and multi-member constituencies; and the Senate, which is elected for a six-year term (one-third of which is renewed every two years). Voters backed a change in constitution which will allow Mr Déby to stand for a third term in 2006. The opposition cried foul over the referendum.
EconomyChad is one of the world’s poorest countries, with a per capita annual income of just US$200. Civil war, poor infrastructure, few natural resources and droughts have hampered any development of the economy during the last few decades.
Subsistence level farming occupies 80% of the population, producing mainly sorghum, millet and groundnuts. Cotton is the main cash crop. Nonetheless, there are chronic food shortages which can, in many areas, only be met by international food aid.
Agro-industrial operations, most of which are based in the south of the country, dominate the small industrial sector. Mineral deposits including tungsten, tin, bauxite, gold and iron ore have been located: only natron (hydrated sodium carbonate) is mined in commercial quantities.
However, the country now has a unique opportunity to transform its economic fortunes following the discovery of large oil deposits in the Doba Basin in the southwest. A 1,000km (621-mile) pipeline linking the fields to the Cameroonian port of Kribi (Chad is landlocked) opened in 2003.
Chad is expected to earn around US$3 billion over 25 years, which will increase national income by around 50%. To avoid the corruption that oil has given rise to in other African countries, a law requires that 80% of oil revenue is spent on development projects. This arrangement has been threatened however by a change in the law in December 2005 which allowed the government to retrieve some of the money put aside for ’future generations’, ie when the oil runs out.
Chad is a member of the Central African Economic and Customs Union (CEEAC).
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