Chad -History
#)Hai friends in this article let us see about the history of one of the African country, Chad
#)Before seeing its history let us see some basic information about Chad
#)Chad, is a republic country in North Central Africa.
#)This country is bounded on the north by Libya, by Sudan on the east; on the south by the Central African Republic and on the west by countries like Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger.
#)This landlocked country has an area of 1,284,000 sq km (495,755 sq mi).
#)The capital city of Chad is N’Djamena and it is the largest city in the couontry and the picture below is a view of the capital city
#)The Flag of the country is shown below
#)The president of the country is Idriss Déby and is the prime minister of the country Youssouf Saleh Abbas
#)Chad got her Independance from from France on August 11, 1960
#)According to the recent census in 2009 the population of Chad is 11,206,000 and it is placed 75th in the olist of Most populated countries
#)Now let us discuss about the history of the country
#)The cave paintings in th ecountry indicates that Chad was a fertile and populous country during the ancient times.
#)By the 9th century ad, the kingdom of Kanem (called as Kanem-Bornu Empire) was established in the present now western Chad region, with its capital at Njimi, near Mao.
#)The picture below shows the Kanem- Bo warriors
#)Its rulers adopted Islam during the 11th century.
#)Kanem was also subjected to neighboring Bornu in the 16th century, and in the succeeding period the chief powers were the the sultanates of Baguirmi and also the Wadai in the south.
#)The economy of these states depend on the export of slaves to North Africa
#)During the late 19th century the area was subdued by the Sudanese conqueror Rabih al-Zubayr, and it was taken over by the French on his death and it marked the begining the French rule in chad.
#)In the year 1910 Chad became a part of the French Equatorial Federation, and Brazzaville was their headquarters.
#)The change to colonial status resulted in little interference in the way of life of the indigenous peoples and little development beyond the establishment of cotton plantations in the south.
#)However inn 1960 Chad, became independent,like other French colonies in Africa.
#)The government was supported by supported by French aid as government was poor under the President François Tombalbaye.
#)Some changes were made in the Bantu-dominated one-party government,because there was dissatisfaction of northern Muslims first surfaced in 1963 .
#)However this didn't made them satisfy , and in the year 1969 Muslim guerrillas began to operate in the north.
#)They along with the support of Libya, they started attacking.
#)Inspite of the military aid from France, Tombalbaye’s situation was made totally untenable by the drought of the early 1970s.
#)He was assassinated in the year 1975.
#)Tombalbaye’s successor was General Félix Malloum, but hw was not able to end the civil strife.
#)In1979, the war had engulfed the south, Malloum was overthrown, and a northerner, Goukouni Oueddei, emerged as president and his picture is shown below
#)In 1980 Libya intervened to support Oueddei against rebels under former defense minister Hissène Habré, who was backed by Sudan and Egypt and his image is shown below
#)After the Libyan forces withdrew at the end 1981 at Oueddei’s request, Habré renewed his offensive, and his troops captured N’Djamena in June 1982.
#)The picture below shows the refugee camp in Chad
#)In 1983 the ousted Oueddei began to form a a rival government in the north.
#)As the civil war continued, Oueddei had the backing of Libyan troops, while France sent troops and supplies to keep Habré in power.
#)By the end of 1988, Libyan forces had been driven out of Chad, and the two nations had a normalized diplomatic relations.
#)AgainiIn December 1990, Habré was ousted by an insurgent group, the Patriotic Salvation Movement, which had Libyan support.
#)The rebel leader, General Idriss Deby, then assumed the presidency power and his image is shown below
#)By the start of 1992, in january, the Deby government claimed to have crushed a rebellion by forces loyal to Habré, and France sent more troops as a safeguard measurement .
#)In the early 1990s Chad continued to suffer from widespread political and ethnic unrest, which also includes the massacre of 82 civilians by President Deby’s private guard in August 1993.
#)But in 1994, the government reached a cease-fire agreement with the rebel group Comité de Sursaut National pour la Paix et la Démocratie (CSNPD) and the CSNPD committed to withdraw troops from southern Chad, and for this the government also agreed to appoint members of the CSNPD to the national army.
#)In addition, a 20-year territorial dispute with Libya came to an end when the International Court of Justice ruled that Chad had sovereignty over the Aozou Strip, a stretch of land along the Libyan border covering about 115,000 sq km (45,000 sq mi).
#)In June and July 1996, under a new, democratic constitution, Deby was popularly elected president in the nation’s first presidential elections.
#)Deby was reelected in May 2001.
#)At present the president of the country is Idriss Déby and is the prime minister of the country Youssouf Saleh Abbas(whose image is shown below)
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