Chad 2006
In 2006, Chad was a landlocked country located in Central Africa with a population of approximately 10 million people. According to constructmaterials, it was a republic headed by President Idriss Déby and Prime Minister Pascal Yoadimnadji. Since gaining independence from France in 1960, the country had made considerable progress in building its economy and infrastructure. The country’s primary sources of income were agriculture and livestock, but services were growing steadily due to increased foreign investment from neighboring countries such as Nigeria and Cameroon. Poverty and inequality were still prevalent, with nearly 40% of the population living below the poverty line. Despite this, access to education had improved since 2000 with primary school attendance rate increasing from approximately 50% to over 70% by 2006. Additionally, economic growth had been steady since 2000 due to increased foreign investment from around the world. Tourism was also increasing as more people became aware of Chad’s unique culture and landscapes including N’Djamena City, Ennedi Plateau National Park and Lake Chad Basin National Park.
Yearbook 2006
Chad. In January, Parliament decided to postpone the parliamentary elections for a year, which was criticized by the opposition. Parliament’s justification was that the country could not afford to hold two elections the same year, presidential elections would be held later in the year.
It was reported at the beginning of the year that several of President Idriss Déby’s supporters deserted to the eastern Chad rebels, and in March it was announced that hundreds of soldiers had been arrested for coup attempts against the president. According to CountryAAH, major public holidays in Chad include Independence Day (August 11) and New Year (January 1). Déby was also pressured by foreign policy through a conflict with Sudan in the border area, where Chadian rebels operated from Darfur on the Sudanese side. In the spring, the government army launched an offensive in the east against the rebel forces. At the same time, the Chadian regime threatened to expel a few hundred thousand Sudanese who fled to Chad from the war and famine in Darfur. But the regime decided instead to close the border with Sudan, which worried relief organizations that assisted the Chadian side by hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people in Sudan.
In the May presidential election, Déby was unarmed, as the opposition largely boycotted the election. According to official figures, the president received 77% of the vote, but according to the opposition, the data on voter turnout was exaggerated. They were later adjusted down to just over half of those entitled to vote. Déby’s victory figure changed to just under 65%. After the election, Déby accused Sudan of wanting to transfer his internal conflict to the Chadian side of the border.
The dreaded Sudanese Janjawid militia, which carried out bloody massacres in Darfur, was reported to have made violent raids even inside Chad. In July, however, Chad and Sudan signed an agreement on joint border monitoring, and both countries pledged not to allow the other side’s rebels on their land.
The ChevronTexaco and Petronas oil companies, which accounted for more than half of Chad’s oil production, were accused in August of tax evasion and called on the government to leave the country. Three ministers were also dismissed, accused of helping companies avoid tax. The measures were seen as part of the government’s plans for increased oil cooperation with China, with which Chad resumed diplomatic relations. In the fall, however, the government signed an agreement with ChevronTexaco and Petronas, who were allowed to stay in the country.
The fighting between the army and rebels in eastern Chad intensified at the end of the year, and the Janjawid militia from Sudan attacked Chadian villages. It was believed that Sudanese rebels had Déby’s silent permission to operate inside Chad if they fought the Chadian rebels. Reports from eg. Relief workers said that hundreds of people were killed in villages far from the Sudanese border.
HISTORY
The country experienced, starting from the mid-1960s, a situation of almost uninterrupted crisis: armed rebellions followed one another and periods of relative stability were brief. The conflict that initially opposed the South, Christian and animist, to the North, Arab-Islamic, progressively became complicated, passing within each camp and favoring the multiplication of the number of warring factions. The internal conflicts also reflected divergent international interests: in particular France and Libya also intervened militarily in support of the various armed groups, conditioning the progress of the civil war. Only at the end of the nineties did a difficult and uncertain process of pacification seem to begin.
In November 1990, a coup d’état brought Colonel I. Déby, leader of the Mouvement patriotique du salut (MPS) and former commander-in-chief of the armed forces, to power, who fled to Libya after the failed 1989 coup.
Backed by Libya, initially viewed favorably by France for its promise to rapidly initiate a process of democratization, Déby came to power on 1 December in a situation of dramatic political uncertainty. Armed opposition groups in fact occupied various parts of the country, while the army indulged in violence, looting and massacres of civilians. In March 1991 a National Charter was launched which, while confirming Déby as head of state, provided for the convening of a sovereign national conference within thirty months. The latter, which met after many postponements, with the participation of some opposition forces in January 1993, appointed a Supreme Transitional Council with the task of preparing multi-party elections within a year and confirmed Déby as head of state and armed forces for the transitional period. The elections were postponed several times due to the difficulty of reaching a definitive agreement with the opposition and the emergence of further tensions, linked to the austerity measures adopted by the government, under pressure from the International Monetary Fund. The signing of the ‘ceasefire’, signed in Franceville, Gabon, in March 1996, by thirteen rebel groups, whose exponents in some cases obtained integration into the regular army, allowed the holding of a referendum in the same month. approved the new Constitution. In July 1996 presidential elections were held, won by Déby, and in January-February 1997 the legislative elections, in which the MPS won the majority of seats.
