About Chad

Officially the Republic of Chad, Chad is bordered by Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, Niger to the west, and Libya to the north. It is landlocked and is in central Africa. It is often referred to as the “Dead Heart of Africa” due to its distance from the sea and desert climate.

Chad has three geographical regions. These are the northern desert, the Sahelian belt in the center, and the fertile southern Sudanese savanna zone. Lake Chad is the second largest in Africa and the largest in Chad. Emi Koussi is the highest peak. N’Djamena is the largest city and was known as Fort-Lamy. 200 ethnic groups reside in the country and Arabic and French are the national languages. The most heavily practiced religions are Christianity and Islam.

Humans moved into the region in the 7th millennium BC. A series of empires rose and fell in Chad’s Sahelian strip by the end of the 1st millennium BC. Each had focused on controlling trade routes across the Sahara. In 1920 the French conquered the area and include it in its French Equatorial Africa colony.

Chad earned independence in 1960 under Francois Tombalbaya’s leadership. Muslims in the north resented his policies and a civil war began in 1965. The rebels conquered Chad’s capital in 1979. Infighting amongst the rebel commanders ended when Hissene Habre defeated his rivals. In 1990 Idriss Deby overthrew him. Sudan’s Darfur crisis has impacted Chad and destabilized it with hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees living in the country.

There are political parties but President Deby and his party, the Patriotic Salvation Movement, control the country. Political violence and attempted coups plague Chad.

Chad is one of the world’s poorest and most corrupt countries. Most of its people are subsistence herders and farmers. Oil production has been the country’s primary export since 2003.