Civil War In Chad History Essay

After getting the independence from France in 1960, the north-central African nation of Chad has undergone four civil wars. These Chadian Civil Wars were against France, Libya, Sudan, Zaire/Congo, and the United States. . The current civil war is also connected to the neighbourers Sudan.

Following are the civil wars that had been happened so far:

1.  First Chad Civil War (1965-1979)

2. Second Chad Civil War (1979-1982)

3. Third Chad Civil War (1998-2002)

4. Fourth Chad Civil War (2005-present)

 First Chad Civil War (1965-1979) : The First Chadian Civil War started in 1965/66, with riots and insurgency against Chadian president François Tombalbaye’s rule, known for its authoritarianism and distrust of democracy.

By January 1962, Tombalbaye had banned all political parties except his own Chadian Progressive Party (PPT), and started immediately concentrating all power in his own hands. His treatment of opponents, real or imagined, was extremely harsh, filling the prisons with thousands of political prisoners. What was even worse was his constant discrimination against the central and northern regions of Chad, where the southern Chadian administrators came to be perceived as arrogant and incompetent.

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A long civil war began as a tax revolt in 1965 and soon set the Muslim north and east against the southern-led government. Even with the help of French combat forces, the Tombalbaye government was never able to quell the insurgency. Tombalbaye’s rule became more irrational and brutal, leading the military to carry out a coup on April 13, 1975 (in which Tombalbaye was killed), and to install Gen. Felix Malloum, a southerner, as head of state. In 1978, Malloum government was broadened to include more northerners. Internal dissent within the government led the northern prime minister, Hissène Habré, to send his forces against the national army in the capital city of N’Djamena in February 1979. The resulting civil war amongst the 11 emergent factions was so widespread that it rendered the central government largely irrelevant. At that point, other African governments decided to intervene.

Second Chad Civil War (1979-1982): The Translational Government of National Unity was coalition government of armed group that ruled Chad from the time period between 1979 to1982, during the most chaotic phase of the long running civil war which happened in 1965 to 1979.The GUNT replaced the fragile alliance led by Felix Malloum and Hissene Habre, which was collapsed in February 1979. The characteristics of the GUNT can be find out by the intense rivalries that led to armed confrontations and Libyan intervention in 1980. Libya intervenes in the support of the GUNT President Goukouni Oueddei against the former GUNT Defence Minister Hissène Habré.

Because of international pressures and uneasy relations between Goukouni and Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, Goukouni asked the Libyans to leave Chad in November 1981; they were replaced by an Inter-African Force (IAF). The IAF showed itself unwilling to confront Habré’s militia, and on June 7, 1982, the GUNT was ousted by Habré; Goukouni fled into exile.

A series of four international conferences held first under Nigerian and then Organization of African Unity (OAU) sponsorship attempted to bring the Chadian factions together. At the fourth conference, held in Lagos, Nigeria, in August 1979, the Lagos accord was signed. This accord established a transitional government pending national elections. In November 1979, the National Union Transition Government (GUNT) was created with a mandate to govern for 18 months. Goukouni Oueddei, a northerner, was named President; Colonel Kamougue, a southerner, Vice President; and Habré, Minister of Defense. This coalition proved fragile; in January 1980, fighting broke out again between Goukouni’s and Habré’s forces. With assistance from Libya, Goukouni regained control of the capital and other urban centers by year’s end. However, Goukouni’s January 1981 statement that Chad and Libya had agreed to work for the realization of complete unity between the two countries generated intense international pressure and Goukouni’s subsequent call for the complete withdrawal of external forces. Libya’s partial withdrawal to the Aozou Strip in northern Chad cleared the way for Haber’s forces to enter N’Djamena in June. French troops and an OAU peacekeeping force of 3,500 Nigerian, Senegalese, and Zairian troops (partially funded by the United States) remained neutral during the conflict.

Third Chad Civil War (1998-2002)

The CSNPD, led by Kette Moise and other southern groups entered into a peace agreement with government forces in 1994, which later broke down. Two new groups, the Armed Forces for a Federal Republic (FARF) led by former Kette ally Laokein Barde and the Democratic Front for Renewal (FDR), and a reformulated MDD clashed with government forces from 1994 to 1995.

Talks with political opponents in early 1996 did not go well, but Deby announced his intent to hold presidential elections in June. Deby won the country’s first multi-party presidential elections with support in the second round from opposition leader Kebzabo, defeating General Kamougue (leader of the 1975 coup against Tombalbaye). Debby’s MPS party won 63 of 125 seats in the January 1997 legislative elections. International observers noted numerous serious irregularities in presidential and legislative election proceedings.

By mid-1997 the government signed peace deals with FARF and the MDD leadership and succeeded in cutting off the groups from their rear bases in the Central African Republic and Cameroon. Agreements also were struck with rebels from the National Front of Chad (FNT) and Movement for Social Justice and Democracy in October 1997. However, peace was short-lived, as FARF rebels clashed with government soldiers, finally surrendering to government forces in May 1998. Barde was killed in the fighting, as were hundreds of other southerners, most civilians.

Since October 1998, Chadian Movement for Justice and Democracy (MDJT) rebels, led by Yusuf Togoimi until his death in September 2002, have skirmished with government troops in the Tidbits region, resulting in hundreds of civilian, government, and rebel casualties, but little ground won or lost. No active armed opposition has emerged in other parts of Chad, although Kette Moise, following senior postings at the Ministry of Interior, mounted a small scale local operation near Moundou which was quickly and violently suppressed by government forces in late 2000.

Deby, in the mid-1990s, gradually restored basic functions of government and entered into agreements with the World Bank and IMF to carry out substantial economic reforms. Oil exploitation in the southern Dobra region began in June 2000, with World Bank Board approval to finance a small portion of a project aimed at transport of Chadian crude through a 1000-km. buried pipeline through Cameroon to the Gulf of Guinea. The project establishes unique mechanisms for World Bank, private sector, government, and civil society collaboration to guarantee that future oil revenues benefit local populations and result in poverty alleviation. Success of the project will depend on intensive monitoring efforts to ensure that all parties keep their commitments. Debt relief was accorded to Chad in May 2001.

Fourth Chad Civil War (2005-present): The current civil war in Chad began in December 2005. The conflict involved Chadian government forces and several Chadian rebel groups. These include the United Front for Democratic Change, United Forces for Development and Democracy, Gathering of Forces for Change and the National Accord of Chad. The conflict has also involved the Janjaweed, while Sudan allegedly supported the rebels, while Libya mediated in he conflict, as well as diplomats from other countries.

In 2005, Chadian President Idriss Deby changed the constitution so that he could run for a third term in office, which sparked mass desertions from the army. The large-scale desertions from the army in 2004 and 2005, which forced Deby to disband his presidential guard and form a new elite military force, weakened the president’s position and encouraged the growth of armed opposition groups. The Rally for Democracy and Liberation (RDL) was formed in August 2005, and the Platform for Unity, Democracy and Change (SCUD), two months later, to overthrow the current government, accusing it of being corrupt and totalitarian. Later that year, the RDL and SCUD joined six other groups to form the United Front for Democracy and Change (FUCD).The situation was made worse by the alleged accumulation of oil wealth by Deby and his entourage. On 6 January 2006, Janjaweed militants crossed the border from Sudan into Chad and attacked the cities of Borota, Ade, and Moudaina. Nine civilians were killed and three were seriously injured.The Chadian government stated, “The Sudanese militias attacked the settlements of Borota, Ade, Moudaina…yesterday killing nine and injuring three among the civilian population… The Chadian government once again warns the Sudanese government against any hasty action because aggression by Sudanese militias will not go unpunished for much longer.”

In February 2007, a coalition of four rebel groups claimed to have taken the eastern border town of Adre. Chad rejected a plan to have U.N. troops along its eastern border. Victims from this attack were documented in the film Google Darfur. In March Former rebel Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim became defence minister. Government said Sudanese Janjaweed militia attacked and destroyed two villages in east Chad. On 26 October 2007, a peace agreement was signed between the government of Chad and four rebel groups: the Movement for Resistance and Change, the National Accord of Chad and two factions of the United Forces for Development and Democracy.

In late November 2007, the rebel leader Mahamat Nouri accused Idriss Deby of ordering an attack on his fighters in the east of Chad. The army said on public radio there were “several hundred dead” and “several injured” among the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) fighters. Abakar Tollimi, secretary-general of the UFDD, disputed the army toll, saying only 17 rebels were killed. “We have killed more than 100 from among the army ranks,” he said after the clashes.

On 30 November 2007, the UFDD declared a “state of war” against French and foreign military forces in an apparent warning to EUFOR Chad/CAR‎, comprising 3,700 European Union peacekeeping troops, who should deploy in eastern Chad on a U.N. mission to protect camps housing more than 400,000 Chadian and Sudanese refugees.

Steps to be taken to stop the civil war in Chad: The main reason for the first civil war in Chad was the president of the Chad. He can stop those riots but he did not do so. Because he want all the power of Chad in his hand.

First of all he should listen the need of the rebel groups. All the talk can be done by the violence but he did not do that. By spreading the violence it would be stopped. Efforts to end the war and resort to peace talks have been made, including by the U.S. government. There have been democratic advances, including the creation of a High Court and a Constitutional Court, the introduction of multi party elections and an increasingly free press. But Chad still remains highly divided along ethnic, cultural, political and regional lines and widespread repression by Debby’s security forces continues.