Yearbook 2000
Chad. The low-intensity civil war between the government army and a number of guerrilla forces continued during the year. In February, there were reports that three rebel groups, all fighting President Idriss Déby’s regime, had decided to form an alliance. In June, the government signed a peace agreement with the guerrilla movement RAFAD.
At the beginning of the year, the International Monetary Fund approved a three-year loan to Chad of just over $ 26 million for the fight against poverty in the country. In June, the World Bank decided to finance $ 193 million for a controversial oil production in southern Chad. A planned pipeline of over 100 km from the oil wells through Cameroon to the Atlantic coast has been criticized by environmental groups. The project, which is estimated to cost $ 3.5 billion, was officially inaugurated in October.
- ABBREVIATIONFINDER: Offers three letter and two letter abbreviations for the country of Chad. Also covers country profile such as geography, society and economy.
Chad’s former president Hissène Habré was prosecuted during a year in a Senegal court, where Habré lived in exile. Habré was charged with torture and murder during his presidency. In July, however, the charge was dropped, after Senegal’s new President Abdoulayé Wade was reported to have dismissed the former judge in the case. Protests came from human rights organizations, which had initiated the prosecution.
In November, Chadian authorities reported that around 50 people had been killed and many more injured in fighting between two ethnic groups in central Chad. Both groups live from livestock breeding and were in conflict over water sources. At the end of the year, the government appealed for international assistance to Chad, as a fifth of the country’s population was estimated to be in need of food aid following unusually poor rainfall.
Country data
Area: 1,284,000 km2 (world rank: 20)
Residents: 14,900,000
Population density: 12 per km2 (as of 2017, world rank: 73)
Capital: N’Djamena
Official languages: French, Arabic
Gross domestic product: 10.0 billion US $; Real growth: -3.0%
Gross national product (GNP, per resident and year): 630 US$
Currency: CFA Franc
Embassy
Lepsiusstr. 114, 12165 Berlin
Telephone 030 31991620,
Fax 030 319916220 www.ambatchadberlin.com
Government
Head of State: Idriss Déby Itno, Outside: Mahamat Zene Chérif
National holiday: 11.8.
Administrative structure
23 regions
State and form of government
Constitution of 2018
Presidential Republic
Parliament: National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) with 188 members, election every 4 years
Direct election of the head of state every 6 years (one-time re-election)
Suffrage from 18 years of age
Population of: Chad, last census 2009: 11,039.873 residents
approx. 200 ethnic groups: approx. 15% Sudan Arabs; 40% Islamic peoples (Kanembu, Boulala, Hadjerai, Dadjo, Maba, Tubu-Daza, Tama, Zaghawa and others; in the S 30% Sara and others; Hausa, Fulbe)
Cities (with population): (as of 2009) N’Djamena 951,418 pop., Moundou 137.251, Abéché 97.963, Sarh 97.224, Kelo 57.859
Religions: 58% Muslims, 18% Catholics, 16% Prostestants; indigenous religions (status: 2006)
Languages: French, Arabic; Sara, Baguirmi, Boulala, Tibbu-Gorane and others
Employed by economic sector: Agriculture. 87%, industry 5%, business 8% (2017)
Unemployment (in% of the labor force)
no information
Inflation rate (in%): 2017: -0.9%
Foreign trade: Import: 2.8 billion US$ (2017); Export: US $ 1.3 billion (2017)
Climate
There are three climate zones in Chad: the tropical south, in the middle the semi-arid Sahel zone and in the north the desert climate of the Sahara.
Most of Chad is characterized by a desert climate with pronounced dryness and large daily temperature fluctuations. Only in southern Chad is there an almost tropical, alternately humid climate. Here the average temperatures are 20 to 25 ° C with maximum values around 40 ° C shortly before the rainy season. The rainy season lasts from May to October, with annual rainfall reaching more than 1,100 mm.
Traveling in the country is practically impossible in the rainy season. The best time to travel to Chad is in the cool season from November to January.
Population 2000
According to COUNTRYAAH, the population of Chad in 2000 was 8,355,543, ranking number 87 in the world. The population growth rate was 3.570% yearly, and the population density was 6.6357 people per km2.
Geopolitics
Having gained independence from France in 1960, Chad faced a civil war that lasted 40 years in which the regions of the north, Muslim and supported by Libya, confronted those of the south, with a Christian majority and mainly supported by France. For years now, the north has taken control of the country. The internal context has long inhibited economic development and made the national political system one of the most unstable in the world. After a decade of dictatorial government ruled by Hissène Habré – in exile in Dakar and under investigation on charges of genocide and torture -, in 1990 a coup d’etat brought General Idriss Déby Itno to power, still today president and destined to a foreseeable electoral reconfirmation in 2016.
Although the country has partially embarked on the path of democratization, with the introduction of a multi-party system and the approval of a Constitution, most of the power remains concentrated in the hands of the president, his party (the Mouvement Patriotique du Salut, Mps) and the military, who have always been his supporters. The personalistic management of power by Déby, the systematic monopolization of national strategic resources and the marginalization of the ethnic and political groups opposed to him have made Chad an incomplete democracy, which registers levels of political and administrative transparency at the bottom of the rankings. world cup.
Since 2003, waves of refugees have begun to enter the country from neighboring Darfur, fleeing the conflict that has broken out in this region of Sudan. The continuous succession of incidents along the border convinced the government of N’Djamena to declare, in December 2005, a state of belligerence against Khartoum, guilty, according to Déby, of supporting Chadian anti-government rebel groups and wanting to destabilize the country by exporting the conflict from Darfur to Chad.
Chad has thus entered a new phase of political turbulence which, intertwined with growing internal political opposition, has already produced three coup attempts: April 2006, February 2008 and May 2013. Far from destabilizing the political system, these attempts Coups have often been the occasion for the regime to crack down on its political opponents. Especially in the most recent case, many doubts remain about the veracity of the official version provided at the time by the Minister of Communications Hassan Sylla Bakary. What is certain is that on that occasion two generals and numerous parliamentarians (including Mahamat Saleh Makki, president of the Unity and Reconstruction Party, later released) were arrested on conspiracy charges. threat to the constitutional order and complicity in murder. Déby and his party, theMPS, control all the main public institutions: the majority in parliament by the MPS (117 seats out of 188 total) allowed the Chadian president to modify some provisions of the Constitution with the aim of further strengthening his control over the country’s political system: among the amended laws those on incompatibility between public offices and on the immovability of the judges of the Supreme Court.
At the moment, the greatest risks to the stability and security of the Déby regime come from the threat posed by the large-scale spread of Islamic terrorism in the country and neighboring areas. The Lake Chad area has in fact been affected in recent years by repeated attacks by the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram, which forced about two and a half million people to flee their homes. Among them at least 70,000 Chadians. Furthermore, the country’s recent military interventions in Nigerian and Cameroonian territory have led to various retaliatory actions by terrorist groups, which severely hit the capital N’Djamena causing numerous victims.
The role of Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, which he had successfully mediated both to resolve the tensions between Chad and Sudan and to promote the national recomposition of Chad, had been crucial in the internal balance of the country and in regional dynamics. The fall of the Tripoli regime and the emergence of a prolonged political crisis in Libya have created new risks also for the security of Chad, as for the other countries of the region.
In addition to the African partners, also the USAand China represent two important actors interested in the regional stabilization process. In 2007 Washington launched an important operation to fight terrorism and secure the borders in the Saharan area (Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara), strengthening its territorial presence through the opening of a military base in Niger and carrying out a series of counterterrorism and training operations for the armies of the affected area states (ie Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal). Beijing, on the other hand, has invested huge capital for oil exploitation both in Sudan and in Chad.