Fumes

Main article: Africa

Geography

Drying Lake Chad

The Lake Chad basin has for centuries been a mobile frontier that roughly cuts the borders of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad. This is a densely populated region - according to various sources for 2020, over 37 million people live there. At the same time, the Chad basin is the fastest degrading ecosystem in the world. In 1963-1998 alone, the lake lost 95% of the water, and the authorities of these countries are desperately and unsuccessfully trying to save the drying lake.

Colonial dependence on France

For 2023, Chad is in colonial dependence on France, which exercises control over all significant processes in politics and economics. For more on specific instruments of influence, see French Foreign Policy.

Population

Main article: Population of Africa

Migration

2021: Net population inflow in 4 years

Marriages

Allowed to have more than one spouse

Overweight

Mortality

Traffic safety

Economy

GDP $890 per capita

Minerals

Oil production

Alcohol market

Minimum age to purchase alcoholic beverages

Agriculture

2019: Low use of pesticides in agriculture

Consumption

Meat

2023: Beef is the most consumed type of meat

Cereals

2019: Low rice consumption: 14kg per person per year

Vegetables

2018: Vegetable consumption - 7 kg per capita

Power

Electrification

2020: Energy consumption per capita

and

IT Market of the Republic of Chad

2022: More than 1 start-up

Foreign trade

2022: Germany is the biggest export destination

Armed Forces

2024: France's military cuts

2020: Why the Chadian army is the strongest in Black Africa

The Chad Armed Forces were not created as a classical army. Their basis is a former partisan freedwoman, hardened in battles with each other and with the Libyans in the famous "War of the Toyota" and not friends with heavy armored vehicles useless in the desert. Captured Soviet equipment is still gathering dust in the hangars of Chad, including 60 T-55 tanks modernized by Ukrainian engineers, captured in the battles with Gaddafi - in the very war where they defeated the mediocre "excellent student" Khalifa Haftar.

The main striking force of Chad is more than a hundred reliable Panar cannon armored cars created by the French for counter-partisan operations in the desert, and in the hands of former partisans turned into powerful weapons. With the beginning of the development of oil fields in 2003, up to half of Chad's petrodollars went to the purchase of an adequate Sahel ecosystem of equipment and weapons. Over time, the Chadians managed to form a compact and balanced armed forces with oil revenues, supplementing the legendary Panara with the Brazilian Cascavels and Russian BRDM-2, indispensable in sands and savannas.

But the main value of Chad is people, mercenaries, militias and partisans who from an early age did not part with weapons and at different times were co-opted into the ranks of government forces. This 30,000-strong army was well trained by French specialists - based on the experience of Erwin Rommel's mobile operations in North Africa. Subsequently, after the country was almost reconciled, and the capital N'Djamena was surrounded by ditches and embankments - in order to avoid the breakthrough of rebel columns on the Toyota - local passionaries found use in the CAR, Mali, Nigeria and Niger, as well as in the troubled north of the country. Chadian mercenaries still participate in battles in Libya - both on the side of the LNA and in the ranks of the PNS.

As a result, as the telegram channel Zangaro Today wrote, the poor state, confidently closing all social and economic ratings, UN had the strongest army in Black Africa, with which only Rwanda or can compete. REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA It is no coincidence that the French chose Chad as their privileged military partner and bridgehead for the operations of their African commandos. Other Sahel countries have not yet been able to repeat the experience of building the Chad Armed Forces.

Ecology

2021: Second highest air pollution

In March 2022, Greenpeace, in collaboration with the development company AirVisual, compiled an annual rating of the countries of Europe and the world with the cleanest air. In Chad, the level of air pollution at the end of 2021 was 75.9 PM2.5 (mkg/m³). Read more here.

Education

Percentage of people who can read

Health care

2021: Maternity leave

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2020

Duration of guaranteed paid sick leave 6 months or more

Part of the population defecates on the street

Crime

Prisons

2019: The minimum age for children to be jailed is 13

2018: Number of prisoners per 100 thousand citizens

War on terrorism

For 2020, Chad is the target for terrorist attacks by the Boko Haram group.

Military groups and the role of France

In February 2020, Chad's largest rebel coalition, the Council of the Military Command for the Salvation of the Republic, invaded the gold rush-ridden Tibesti highlands from Libya.

The event for Chad is quite everyday. For decades, weapons in Chad are not just a profession, but a daily routine and even philosophy. The number of fleeting rebel groups with mandatory "democracy," "freedom" and "union" in the names is not subject to any accounting. As noted by the telegram channel Zangaro Today, the war here is the main factor in social mobility, and desert landscapes are a kind of casino for everyone who wants to get out of the cretinism of rural life. No wonder, then, that Chadian rebels, mercenaries, and retired warriors are famous throughout North and Central Africa.

The line between the state, the rebel camp and the gang in this anarchic universe is thin and porist. They are fighting here not for the idea, but for the honorary peace and co-opting in the elite. The luckiest receive officer ranks and positions in the provincial and metropolitan administration, and the suckers are sent to rot in the deserted Koro Toro prison.

Some of the lucky ones, tired of the squalid barracks life and the shifting of pieces of paper, return to the big road or to rebel camps - for a week, months or years, depending on the situation and ambitions.

For thirty years now, the government of the once successful military leader Idris Debi Itno, who captured the capital back in 1990 during a crazy raid on Toyota and subsequently miraculously stood under the fierce onslaught of the competing coalitions. But the consensus is gradually melting. According to the apt remark of one Chadian official, at least 2 thousand ministers are needed to please everyone.

Meanwhile, life in the country is rapidly becoming more expensive (with a minimum wage of $100 N'Djamena at the beginning of 2020 - the most expensive city in Africa), the treasury is emptying, the government stupidly has no money to co-opt the rebels into its ranks. Moreover: the authorities were even forced to dismiss a bunch of officials. Therefore, dissatisfied people are accumulating at the borders, wishing to try for a tooth and - with great luck - seize the capital or, at worst, bargain for an air-conditioned office in some sub-prefecture. Thousands of Chadian rebels and dissidents are found on ownerless sections of the Libyan border, ready to seize the northern provinces.

But not everything is so simple. In addition to oil and gold, the country is not particularly rich in fossils, and without easy money, most of the rebels sooner or later return to cities and villages - grazing goats, taxing, "helping" at customs posts. Therefore, the key to the success of any uprising is funding from regional centers: Benghazi, Tripoli, Paris and Khartoum. And not a single decision on the change of power in this country is made without taking into account the opinion - France the champion of military interventions in this Sahel republic.

And here's the bad luck. Recently, the desert and impoverished state, which is forever closing UN statistics, has become France's key military partner in the fight against terrorism. And since the troops of Chad are tightly constrained by a tense and bloody war with Boko Haram and the Islamic State, they will not change the horses at the crossing. Paris has invested too much in Idris Deby, and a raid not agreed with Khalifa Haftar and France risks drowning in the blood.

A previous invasion by the Union of Resistance Forces on February 3-6, 2019, led by Timan Erdimi, President Deby's nephew, advanced 400km but was stopped and bled by French air strikes.

Sport

2022: The most popular sport is football

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History

2024: One of the opposition leaders Yaya Dillo, cousin of the country's military leader Mahamat Debi, is killed

On the night of February 27-28, 2024, unknown assailants attacked the building of the national state security agency. As a result of the attack, "several" people died.

In response, the authorities deployed troops throughout the capital and blamed supporters of the Socialist Party Without Borders for the attack.

The Minister of Communications of Chad accused the Socialists of the attack and said that the reason for their speech was the arrest a day earlier of the financial secretary of the socialist party for "inciting" the assassination attempt on the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Samir Adam Annur.

It is important that this party was led by the cousin of the current military leader of the country, Mahamat Debi, and one of the opposition leaders Yaya Dillo and his uncle Saleh Debi, the brother of the former interim president of the country, Idris Debi.

During the day, the situation escalated and everything turned to an armed clash between the army and Dillo's supporters.

As a result of the day of fighting, government forces were able to take control of the situation: all offices of the Socialist Party Without Borders were bombed, Saleh Debi's house was stormed, and Yaya Dillo was killed during the fighting.

The President of Chad announced that the situation in N'Djamena has stabilized, and government forces will continue to block and patrol the streets of the capital to restore order.

He also ordered the arrest of all participants in the attack on the security service.

2022

Riots Over Mahamat Debi's Refusal To Leave Interim President

Protesters oppose the extension of President Mahamat Idriss Debi Itno's transition period.

After the "dialogue of national reconciliation" on October 10, 2022, despite the fact that the previous transition period was supposed to expire on October 20, it was announced that Mahamat Debi was sworn in for another 2 years as interim president, as well as giving him the right to run in the presidential election. According to opposition representatives, they were not represented at this forum, as were 2 of the 3 main armed groups.

Despite the October 19 ban by the authorities on demonstrations, unrest broke out in N'Djamena on October 20 in the morning. At least five dead and many injured are reported.

The decision to extend the transition period and give Mahamat Deby the right to run in future elections embarrasses the international community in the African Union, the United States and the European Union, including France and personally President Emmanuel Macron, who supported the Chadian leader's rise to power, while condemning the similar new governments of Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Sudan.

Aggravation at Chad-Sudan border

On the afternoon of August 7, 2022, the Chadian authorities ordered to close the border with Sudan, and in Khartoum decided to pull troops into the state of West Darfur. The reason for the aggravation was the death of 18 Sudanese and 9 Chadians in intercommunal clashes for livestock.

In Khartoum, shepherds of a neighboring state were accused of stealing 300 heads of Sudanese camels and demanded proceedings. Battles ensued, which lasted several days.

Intercommunal conflicts in the region are by no means uncommon and have regularly erupted since the 1960s, when the authorities of the two countries began to cultivate rebel movements in each other's territories, which were at odds on ethnic, religious and economic grounds.

The groups rely on the contradictions between the peoples of Darfur: on the one hand there are Negroid peoples of the Furs and Masalites, on the other - Arab-speaking tribes.

The head of the Sovereign Council of Sudan, Muhammad Hamdan Daglo, had to urgently travel to Darfur to attend the funeral of the dead shepherds and calm the disgruntled tribes who are eager to pursue the killers in the Chadian territory. He vowed to end border conflicts and called on the Chadian authorities to return the loot.

And while further escalation has so far been avoided, the events are a clear confirmation that the Darfur region remains East Africa's powder keg. The recent clashes are another demonstration of the two countries' most sensitive security spots.

2021: President Idriss Debi is killed fighting separatists. The country was temporarily led by his son Mahamat

President Chad Idriss Debi, died in April 2021 during a clash with separatists in the north of the country. After that, his son Mahamat Debi, with the support of the military junta, stood at the head of the republic.

Having headed the Transitional Military Council (TMC) of 15 generals, he abolished the Constitution, dissolved parliament and dismissed the government, but immediately promised to transfer power to civilian institutions at the end of the 18-month "transition period" and not nominate himself in future presidential elections.

2020

Boko Haram's biggest defeat since 2016

In April 2020, Chadian troops inflicted the largest defeat on Boko Haram terrorists since 2016. Having lost 52 soldiers, Chadian units destroyed over 1,000 militants and destroyed all their bases in the waters of Lake Chad. The blow is so serious that the leader of the terrorists Abubakar Shekau in a video message hysterically begged his fighters not to run away, and the Chadians to leave him alone. For President Idris Debi Itno, who dreams of taking Gaddafi's place, this is an important step towards regional leadership.

Nigerian military experts, whose shoulders bear the brunt of the fighting with the Islamists, can only bite their elbows. It is significant that the Nigerian authorities - with its huge military budget of $2,41 billion - they ask to increase their already stupid and clumsy army by another 100 thousand servicemen, while Chad - with a total annual budget of $7 billion and military spending of only $300 million - is able to conduct exemplary operations and strengthen the colonial myth of the "invincibility of the Chadian soldier."

92 military killed in Boko Haram raid

In March 2020, Boko Haram committed the largest rally in Chad in the last few years. At least 92 Chadian soldiers were killed in a militant raid on a military base in Lak province, on the border with Niger and Nigeria. According to the President of Chad, these are the largest one-time losses of the country's Armed Forces during a separate incident.

2019:37 killed in war of herders and farmers

At least 37 people were killed in early August 2019 in fighting between rival ethnic groups in Chad, President Idris Deby said.

Violence between nomadic herders from the Zagawa people and settled farmers broke out in the eastern province of Vaddai, on the border with the Sudanese province of Darfur. Debi himself belongs to the Zagawa people.

1983

1914

Sahelanthropes

The sahelanthrope is described from finds made in the northwest of the Republic of Chad (Durab Desert, Toros Menella) in 2001. Analysis of fossils collected with the sachelanthrope suggests that the site examined was the shore of a large lake, around which lay savanna, passing into a sandy desert.

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