Answers: Chad and the death of Idriss Deby
Since the death of longtime strongman Idriss Deby last month, Chad’s transitional military government led by Deby’s son Mahamat Idriss Déby has faced multiple protests calling for civilian rule, divisions in Deby’s family and more fighting with the northern rebels (the military is now claiming victory in the weeks-long conflict that led to Deby’s death while visiting troops on the frontline).
Chad’s strategic significance stems from its relative stability and military might under Deby in the Sahel, the region south of the Sahara Desert stretching across the breadth of the African continent. Chad’s western-backed military has punched well above its weight, deploying troops to neighbouring countries battling Islamist armed groups and is key to former colonial power France’s security interests in a volatile region. France has defended the Chad military’s takeover of power after Deby’s death.
While Chad is bigger in area than Ethiopia and Nigeria, its vast stretches of desert are sparsely populated and the country has only 15 million people. It is resource-rich but ranked 187 out of 189 in the United Nations’ Human Development Index, with one of the world’s lowest life expectancy and education levels.
August 2022 update: Chad’s government and most rebel groups (but not all) signed a deal in Doha, Qatar to launch a ‘Comprehensive and Sovereign National Dialogue’ in the Chadian capital. More here and here. The main holdout is The Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), the group that claimed responsibility for Idriss Deby’s death.
Answers:
1) Chad and its northern oil-rich neighbour Libya fought it out over the 1980s as Muammar Gaddafi attempted to seize a slice of Chad. Gaddafi’s troops were routed in the last phase of the war in 1987 in large part through desert tactics used by Chad, with Idriss Deby as army chief. The war got its nickname thanks to Chad’s tactics, established its military’s reputation and set the template for desert fighting in the Middle East and North Africa. What is the war known as?
Toyota war. Chad’s soldiers effectively used Land Cruiser and Hilux pickup trucks to navigate the desert. More here and here.
2) X was Muammar Gaddafi’s favourite in Libya’s military. Gaddafi called X ‘my son’ and himself X’s ‘spiritual father’. X was the top commander in the ill-fated war with Chad, who captured him. Now abandoned by Gaddafi, X was cultivated by Chad and the CIA to lead a rebel army. But X’s plans were thwarted by a Gaddafi-backed coup in Chad in 1990 that brought Idriss Deby to power (yes, Deby and Gaddafi were now on the same side). X went on to spend decades in the U.S. Identify X, who’s become a key figure in post-Gaddafi Libya.
Khalifa Haftar, the controversial militia leader based in eastern Libya, whose bid to seize the capital Tripoli was foiled with the help of Turkey’s military. A unity government took office in March, after a decade of chaos and rival administrations following the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi. How Haftar is handled will be crucial for the future of the unity government and planned elections.
More about Haftar, his return after decades of exile and soured ties with Gaddafi here
3) After seizing power in 1982, Hissene Habre was the dictator in control of Chad until 1990. Known as ‘Africa’s Pinochet’, his regime was notorious for political killings, systematic torture and arbitrary arrests. Ethnic groups perceived as threats to his rule were targeted. This included the Zaghawa in 1989-90, Idriss Deby’s community. Army chief Deby, who was accused of trying to topple him, sought exile aboard (and struck a deal with old foe Gaddafi). After Deby toppled Habre, it was the deposed leader’s turn to seek exile aboard. In 2016, Habre was convicted of crimes against humanity, summary execution and torture. Which country was Habre based in and what was unprecedented about the trial? (Hint: the principle of universal jurisdiction was applied)
Hissene Habre was tried and convicted in Senegal. It was the first time courts of one country prosecuted the former leader of another for human rights crimes.
Senegal amended its laws to incorporate universal jurisdiction, a principle of international law that allows national courts to prosecute crimes committed abroad, by a foreigner and against foreign victims. The Extraordinary African Chambers was created in Senegal’s court system with the African Union’s support.
4) A Libyan announcement following the visit of Chad’s then President Goukouni Oueddei in January 1981 sparked a backlash across Africa, forcing Muammar Gaddafi to climb down. The U.S. under Ronald Reagan, already wary of Gaddafi, expanded support to Defence Minister turned rebel leader Hissene Habre. The rebels seized the capital N’Djamena in June 1982. What was the short-lived Libyan announcement that was met with a backlash from neighbours as well as the U.S.?
Libya announced Chad was merging with it. More on the backlash across Africa here
5) Idriss Deby’s Zaghawa ethnic group straddles Chad and a conflict-ridden region of a neighbouring country. Chad and its neighbour have a complicated relationship and both sides have accused each other of allowing rebels to operate from their territories. Hundreds of thousands of refugees from the neighbour’s conflict-ridden region are in Chad. Name the neighbour and the conflict-ridden region.
Sudan and Darfur
6) In 2000 Chad and an international organisation struck a deal that was hailed as a pioneering model to help developing countries bring down poverty and eliminate corruption. A majority of the revenue was deposited in a transparent London bank account and 80 per cent of earnings was to be directed towards development projects. An independent oversight board was to approve or deny spending proposals, only to find rampant corruption in an investigation. Chad repeatedly argued that it needed greater control over the money due to security threats and secured it in 2006. Two years later, the international organisation exited the experiment. Name the organisation and what was the failed deal all about.
The World Bank. The deal involved the bank part-financing an oil pipeline connecting landlocked Chad to Cameroon’s Atlantic coast. In return, Chad was to spend most of its oil royalties on building schools, hospitals and roads.
7) X straddles Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. It has shrunk by 90 per cent over the past 60 years and is often cited as a cautionary example of climate change, amid corruption and conflict. In 2016 the UN aid chief referred to the region as the world’s most neglected humanitarian crisis. What is X?
Lake Chad. More here, here and here.
8) In 2013 Chad’s forces were pivotal to a French-led offensive to oust fighters linked to Al Qaeda who had taken over vast swathes of another country in the Sahel. Name the country.
9) In February 2015 Chad’s troops entered a southwestern neighbour’s territory as part of a regional initiative to stamp out a rebel group. They notched up crucial military wins and carried out air strikes, weakening the rebels. But Chad’s success embarrassed the neighbour, which is considered a regional economic and political powerhouse, highlighting its own security forces’ failures. Name the neighbouring country and the rebel group
Nigeria and Boko Haram. More here and here.
10) Chad’s forces were accused of siding with a mainly Muslim rebel alliance in a southern neighbour consumed by civil war. Chad was a prominent part of an African Union-led peacekeeping mission there. But it withdrew in 2014 after a series of controversial clashes with Christian militia. The last straw was the killing of dozens of civilians in the capital, in what a UN report concluded was an indiscriminate attack on a crowded market by Chadian soldiers. Over the past few months, Chad has been accused of playing a dubious role as the conflict escalated again. Name the country
Central African Republic. More here and here.
11) This word stands for a crescent-shaped dune carved by the wind in the desert (also the name of a military operation). What’s the word?
Barkhane - also the name of the French-led military operation to combat armed groups in the Sahel. Operation Barkhane has its headquarters in Chad’s capital N’Djamena and Chad’s soldiers are crucial to the campaign.
12) A version of this phrase was coined in 1955 by Felix Houphouet-Boigny, independent Ivory Coast’s first President from 1960 until his death in 1993. The Francophile leader was referring to the political and economic ties between France and its colonies. In 1998 the French journalist and intellectual François-Xavier Verschave reworked the phrase, defining it to represent France’s cosy and shadowy economic, political and military ties with a corrupt elite in its former African colonies. What is the phrase?
Francafrique. More here and here.