From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs to be updated. Parts of this article or section are no longer up to date. Please update the article to reflect recent events, and remove this template when finished.

This article does not cite any references or sources. (July 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

The Military of Chad was dominated by members of Toubou, Zaghawa, Kanembou, Hadjerai, and Massa ethnic groups during the presidency of Hissène Habré. Current Chadian president Idriss Déby, a member of the minority Zaghawa-related Bidyate clan and a top military commander, revolted and fled to the Sudan, taking with him many Zaghawa and Hadjerai soldiers in 1989. The forces that Déby led into N'Djamena on December 1, 1990, to oust President Habré, were mainly Zaghawa, including a large number of Sudanese, many of whom were recruited while Déby was in the bush. Déby's coalition also included a small number of Hadjerais and southerners.

Chad's armed forces numbered about 36,000 at the end of the Habré regime, but swelled to an estimated 50,000 in the early days of Déby's rule. With French support, a reorganization of the armed forces was initiated early in 1991 with the goal of reducing the armed forces to 25,000. An essential element of this effort was to make the ethnic composition of the armed forces reflective of the country as a whole. Neither of these goals was achieved. The military still numbers at least 30,000 men and is dominated by the Zaghawa.

War and rebellion continues to plague Chad. Following Déby's rise to power, Habré loyalists continued to fight government troops and rob civilians around Lake Chad. There were numerous small rebellions in eastern Chad, even among the Zaghawa. In the mid- and late-1990s, a rebellion in the south by the FARF delayed the promised petrol development until it was crushed by government forces. Most recently, Youssouf Togoimi and his Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT) were the most serious threat to Déby's power. Since 1998, government and rebel forces have fought with little progress on either side. In January 2002, the government and the MDJT signed a formal peace accord.

In 2004, the government discovered that many of the soldiers it was paying did not exist and that some officers were taking these salaries for themselves; it furthermore determined that there were only about 19,000 soldiers in the army, as opposed to the 24,000 that had been previously believed. Government crackdowns against the practice are thought to have been a factor in a failed military mutiny in May 2004.

Since the expulsions of residents from Darfur in 2003 by Janjawid armed militia and Sudanese military, about 200,000 refugees remain in eastern Chad; Chad remains a mediator in the Sudanese civil conflict; however, tensions with Sudan have risen from cross-border banditry. Chadian Aozou rebels reside in southern Libya; only Nigeria and Cameroon have heeded the Lake Chad Commission's admonition to ratify the delimitation treaty, which also includes the Chad-Niger and Niger-Nigeria boundaries. In 2005-2006 new rebel groups emerged in western Sudan and have made probing attacks into eastern Chad.

Military branches: Armed Forces (includes Ground Force, Air Force, and Gendarmerie), Republican Guard, Rapid Intervention Force, Police, Nomad and National Guard (GNNT)

Military manpower - military age: 20 years of age

Military manpower - availability:
males age 15-49: 2,008,825 (2004 est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service:
males age 15-49: 1,051,802 (2004 est.)

Military manpower - reaching military age annually:
males: 91,231 (2004 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $55.4 million (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 2.1% (2003)

• Chad Air Force
• Chadian Armed Forces
• Chadian National Armed Forces
• Nomad and National Guard

This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.