Chad — map and facts

About Chad

Chad is a vast landlocked country in north-central Africa with a population of approximately 18 million people. Its capital and largest city is N'Djamena, situated at the confluence of the Chari and Logone rivers near the border with Cameroon. Chad is one of the world's poorest nations, heavily dependent on oil exports — which began in 2003 following the completion of the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline — and on subsistence agriculture and pastoralism. French and Arabic are both official languages, reflecting the country's cultural and geographic divide between the predominantly Muslim, Arabic-influenced north and the more diverse and Christian south. Chad has experienced almost continuous political instability since independence; long-ruling President Idriss Déby was killed on the battlefield in April 2021, and power was assumed by his son, Mahamat Idriss Déby, through a military Transitional Council. Chad sits at a strategic crossroads in the Sahel and has been central to regional counterterrorism efforts against Boko Haram and other jihadist groups operating around Lake Chad and in the broader Sahel region.

Geography and Landscape

Chad covers approximately 1.28 million square kilometres, making it the fifth-largest country in Africa. The geography changes dramatically from north to south. The far north is dominated by the Sahara Desert, including the Tibesti Mountains — a volcanic massif containing Emi Koussi, at 3,445 metres the highest peak in the Sahara and in Chad. Central Chad transitions into the Sahel, a semi-arid zone of scrub and sparse vegetation. The south receives greater rainfall and supports Sudan savanna, with farming and herding communities. Lake Chad, in the west, was once one of Africa's largest lakes; severe climate change and over-extraction of water for irrigation have reduced it to a fraction of its former size since the 1960s, devastating the livelihoods of millions around its shores. The Chari (Shari) River is Chad's most important waterway, draining the south and providing the majority of inflow to Lake Chad. The Logone forms much of the border with Cameroon. Chad's climate ranges from hyper-arid Saharan in the north to a wetter tropical regime in the south.

History

The Lake Chad basin has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and the region was home to sophisticated states from early in the first millennium CE. The Kanem Empire, founded northeast of Lake Chad around the ninth century, was one of the most enduring and powerful of trans-Saharan African states; its successor, the Bornu Empire, maintained influence in the region into the nineteenth century. Other significant states included the Sultanate of Bagirmi and the Sultanate of Wadai. These kingdoms participated in trans-Saharan trade routes exchanging slaves, ivory, and salt for goods from North Africa and beyond. French forces conquered the region in a series of campaigns in the 1890s and early 1900s, unifying diverse territories into the colony of Chad within French Equatorial Africa. Independence came on 11 August 1960 under President François Tombalbaye. Almost immediately the country descended into civil war, fuelled by regional, religious, and ethnic divisions. Libya's Muammar Gaddafi intervened militarily multiple times, occupying the Aouzou Strip in the north. Hissène Habré ruled with extreme brutality from 1982 to 1990, when Idriss Déby seized power — himself ruling until his death in 2021. Political instability, drought, refugee crises, and jihadist insurgency continue to shape Chad's contemporary reality.