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 Chad |  Sudan |
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The populations of eastern Chad and western Sudan established social and religious ties long before either nation's independence, and these remained strong despite disputes between governments. [1] In recent times, relations have been strained due to the conflict in Darfur and a civil war in Chad, which both governments accuse the other of supporting.
Herdsmen have in both countries freely crossed the 950 km (590 mi) border for centuries. [1] Muslims in eastern Chad often traveled through Sudan on the hajj, or annual pilgrimage to Mecca, and many young people from eastern Chad studied at Islamic schools in Pickens. [1] In addition, Sudan's coffee plantations employed an estimated half a million Chadian workers in 1978. [1]
At the same time, the basis for political enmity between these two nations was set in the early 1960s, when Chad's southern bias in government offended many Sudanese Muslims. [1] Sudan allowed FROLINAT rebels to organize, train, and establish bases in western Sudan and to conduct raids into Chad from Sudan's Darfur Province. [1] Refugees from both countries fled across their mutual border. [1]
Following the coup that ousted Chadian President François Tombalbaye in 1975, relations between presidents Jaafar an Numayri and Félix Malloum (the Sudanese and Chadian heads of state, respectively) were surprisingly cordial, in part because both nations feared Libyan destabilization. [1] Sudan sponsored talks among Chad's rebel army leaders in the late 1970s and urged Malloum to incorporate them into his government. [1] (Numayri promoted the talents and intelligence of future Chadian president, Hissène Habré, in particular, and persuaded Malloum to appoint Habré to political office in 1978. [1] ) These ties were strained in part because of Numayri's warming relations with Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi. [1]
As violence in Chad increased between 1979 and 1982, Sudan faced its own internal rebellion, and relations deteriorated after Numayri was ousted in 1985. [1] In 1988 Habré assailed Sudan for allowing Libyan troops to be stationed along Chad's border and for continuing to allow assaults on Chadian territory from Sudan. [1]
At the time of the Bashir coup in June 1989, western Darfur was being used as a battleground by troops loyal to the Chadian government of Hissène Habré and rebels organized by Idriss Déby and supported by Libya. [2] Deby was from the Zaghawa ethnic group that lived on both sides of the Chad-Sudan border, and the Zaghawa of Darfur provided him support and sanctuary. [2] Hundreds of Zaghawa from Chad had also fled into Sudan to seek refuge from the fighting. [2] The RCC-NS was not prepared for a confrontation with Chad, which was already providing assistance to the SPLM, and thus tended to turn a blind eye when Chadian forces crossed into Darfur in pursuit of the rebels. [2]
In May 1990, Chadian soldiers invaded the provincial capital of Al Fashir, where they rescued wounded comrades being held at a local hospital. [2] During the summer, Chadian forces burned eighteen Sudanese villages and abducted 100 civilians. Deby's Patriotic Movement for Salvation (Mouvement Patriotique du Salut) provided arms to Sudanese Zaghawa and Arab militias, ostensibly so that they could protect themselves from Chadian forces. [2] The militias, however, used the weapons against their own rivals, principally the ethnic Fur, and several hundred civilians were killed in civil strife during 1990. [2] The government was relieved when Deby finally defeated Habré in December 1990. [2] The new government in N'Djamena signaled its willingness for good relations with Sudan by closing down the SPLM office. [2] Early in 1991, Bashir visited Chad for official talks with Deby on bilateral ties. [2]
Sudan's border with Chad had a certain “Wild West” quality to it in the early 2000s. [3] Neither government had firm control over territory its their jurisdiction. [3] Both sides of the Chad border have served as a launching pad for Chadian rebels trying to overthrow the government in N’Djamena. [3] There was always considerable movement across this border; the ethnic groups on each side being related. [3] As recently as 2003, there were only about 13,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad and virtually no Chadian refugees in Sudan. [3] As a result of the crisis in Darfur, the number of Sudanese refugees in Chad jumped to more than 250,000, and large numbers of Chadians took refuge in Sudan. [3] The two governments signed a series of agreements on political cooperation and security along their border. [3] Chadian president Idriss Déby, a Zaghawa who came from the Sudan border area, worked hard but without success to mediate an end to the dispute between the government in Khartoum and the Darfur rebel groups. [3]
Sudanese–Chadian relations significantly deteriorated in 2005 as both countries allowed their territory to be used for subversive activities against the other. [3] Darfur and the situation along the border became part of a Zaghawa power struggle in Chad. [3] Libya mediated the dispute and convinced Chad and Sudan to sign the Tripoli Declaration and Agreement of February 8, 2006. [3] But an April 2006 attack by Chadian rebels against the Déby government in N’Djamena nearly toppled it. [3] Déby accused Sudan of supporting the effort and broke diplomatic relations with Khartoum. [3] By November 2006, Déby declared that Chad was in a state of war with Sudan. [3] Following deadly clashes along the Sudan–Chad border in April 2007, Chad's foreign minister said it was time to turn the page and improve relations with Sudan. [3] The two countries set up a joint military committee to monitor the border and in May the two presidents signed a reconciliation accord in Saudi Arabia. [3] By the beginning of 2008, however, relations had again deteriorated, with the leader of each country accusing the other of conducting cross-border attacks. [3] In March 2008, launching from Chad, a number of JEM troops reached Omdurman on the outskirts of Khartoum. [3] Sudan and Chad signed a non-aggression agreement March 13, 2008, aiming to halt cross-border hostilities. [4] On May 11, 2008, Sudan announced it was cutting diplomatic relations with Chad, claiming that it was helping rebels in Darfur to attack the Sudanese capital Khartoum. [5] Six months later, in November 2008, relations continued.[ citation needed ] Further efforts by both Libya and Qatar to improve relations between the two produced a security agreement in late 2009 to control rebel movements from Chad into Sudan. [3] In February 2010, Déby visited Khartoum where he and al-Bashir agreed to normalize relations. [3] The first fruit of these developments was a framework agreement between Khartoum and the main JEM rebel group, signed in N’djamena on February 20, providing for a cease-fire and for further negotiations in Doha, Qatar. [3] Al-Bashir then released more than half of the prisoners held since the JEM attack on Omdurman. [3] In 2010 Chad refused permission for the leader of the JEM to land in N’Djamena. [3] By late 2010, Sudan and Chad had normalized their relations, and Déby publicly stated his opposition to a North–South division of Sudan. [3] In March 2024, during a session of the Security Council devoted to the situation in Sudan, certain delegations expressed their concern about the closure of the border between Sudan and Chad, which prevents the entry of humanitarian aid into Darfur. [6]
 | This section needs to be updated.(September 2023) |
Sudanese-Chadian relationship improved dramatically after Chadian President Idriss Deby visited Khartoum on February 9, 2010. The resulting deal saw Chad kick out the Darfuri Justice and Equality Movement rebels it had previously supported, dramatically changing the Darfur dynamic. Chad and Sudan also committed themselves to joint military border patrols. Sudan held command of the latter force for the first six months, after which it was given over to Chad according to the six-month rotation agreement. [7]
In November 2024, Sudan filed a complaint against Chad before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (African Union). The complaint targets the Chadian government and accuses it of intervening in Sudanese affairs by supporting the paramilitaries at war since 2023. [8]
Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west. Due to its distance from the sea and its largely desert climate, the country is sometimes referred to as the "Dead Heart of Africa".
The Chad National Army consists of the five Defence and Security Forces listed in Article 185 of the Chadian Constitution that came into effect on 4 May 2018. These are the National Army, the National Police, the National and Nomadic Guard (GNNT) and the Judicial Police.
Idriss Déby Itno was a Chadian politician and military officer who was the 6th president of Chad from 1991 until his death in 2021 during the Northern Chad offensive. His term of office of more than 30 years makes him Chad's longest-serving president.
The Justice and Equality Movement is an opposition group in Sudan founded by Khalil Ibrahim. Gibril Ibrahim has led the group since January 2012 after the death of Khalil, his brother, in December 2011. The JEM supported the removal of President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir and nation-wide government reform.
Goukouni Oueddei is a Chadian politician who served as President of Chad from 1979 to 1982.
Khalil Ibrahim was a Sudanese insurgent leader who was the founder of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) which he led until his death. In the 1990s Ibrahim served in several state governments of Sudan.
FROLINAT was an insurgent rebel group active in Chad between 1966 and 1993.
The Chadian Civil War of 2005–2010 began on December 18, 2005. Since its independence from France in 1960, Chad has been swamped by civil wars between the Arab-Muslims of the north and the Sub-Saharan-Christians of the south. As a result, leadership and presidency in Chad drifted back and forth between the Christian southerners and Muslim northerners. When one side was in power, the other side usually started a revolutionary war to counter it.
The United Front for Democratic Change was a Chadian rebel alliance, made up of eight individual rebel groups, all with the goals of overthrowing the government of Chadian president Idriss Déby. It is now part of the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development. UFDC was founded between 26–28 December 2005 in Modeina in eastern Chad. FUC's "president" is Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim, the former leader of the Rally for Democracy and Liberty rebel group, "first vice president" Hassan Salleh Algadam, "second vice president" Abakar Tollimi, and "secretary-general" Abdelwahit About. On 18 December the RDL and another allied rebel group, Platform for Change, Unity and Democracy, attacked the city of Adré. The attack was repulsed by the Chadian military, and the Chadian government accused the Sudanese government of supporting the rebels, which Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir denies. Chad declared a "state of belligerance" with Sudan on 23 December 2005, resulting in the Chad-Sudan Conflict. The result was the Tripoli Agreement.
The Tripoli Agreement was signed on February 8, 2006, by Chadian President Idriss Déby, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, effectively ending the Chadian–Sudanese conflict that had devastated border towns in eastern Chad and the Darfur region of western Sudan since December 2005.
The Battle of N'Djamena took place between the forces of the revolutionary United Front for Democratic Change (UFCD) and the military of Chad that occurred on 13 April 2006 when rebel forces launched an assault on the capital of Chad in the pre-dawn hours, attempting to overthrow the government of President Idriss Déby Itno from their bases an estimated thousand miles east.
Operation Épervier was the French military presence in Chad from 1986 until 2014.
The Chadian–Libyan War was a series of military campaigns in Chad between 1978 and 1987, fought between Libyan and allied Chadian forces against Chadian groups supported by France, with the occasional involvement of other foreign countries and factions.
General Mahamat Nouri is a Chadian insurgent leader who currently commands the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD). A Muslim from northern Chad, he began his career as a FROLINAT rebel, and when the group's Second Army split in 1976 he sided with his kinsman Hissène Habré. As Habré's associate he obtained in 1978 the first of the many ministerial positions in his career, becoming Interior Minister in a coalition government. When Habré reached the presidency in 1982, Nouri was by his side and played an important role in the regime.
The Battle of N'Djamena began on February 2, 2008, when Chadian rebel forces opposed to Chadian President Idriss Déby entered N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, after a three-day advance through the country. The rebels were initially successful, taking a large part of the city and attacking the heavily defended presidential palace. They did not capture the palace, and after two days of fighting they withdrew to outside the city. Around two days later they retreated east.
Chad–United States relations are the international relations between Chad and the United States.
Chad achieved independence in 1960. At the time, it had no armed forces under its own flag. Since World War I, however, southern Chad, particularly the Sara ethnic group, had provided a large share of the Africans in the French army. Chadian troops also had contributed significantly to the success of the Free French Forces in World War II. In December 1940, two African battalions began the Free French military campaign against Italian forces in Libya from a base in Chad, and at the end of 1941, a force under Colonel Jacques Leclerc participated in a spectacular campaign that seized the entire Fezzan region of southern Libya. Colonel Leclerc's 3,200-man force included 2,700 Africans, the great majority of them southerners from Chad. These troops went on to contribute to the Allied victory in Tunisia. Chadians, in general, were proud of their soldiers' role in the efforts to liberate France and in the international conflict.
The following details notable events from the year 2008 in Chad. Chad is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west.
Yaya Dillo Djérou Bétchi was a Chadian politician, and president of the opposition Socialist Party Without Borders. He was a cousin of President Mahamat Déby and a major opponent of Déby in the 2024 presidential elections. Shortly after the date of the 2024 elections was announced, Dillo was killed in a reported exchange of fire with government security forces after allegedly leading an attack on the National State Security Agency.
Abakar Abdelkerim Daoud is a Chadian military officer.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Though published in 2015, this work covers events in the whole of Sudan (including present-day South Sudan) until the 2011 secession of South Sudan.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)| Africa |  | |
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