Chadian Civil War (1965–1979)

By the time of its independence from France in 1960, Chad was a sparsely populated but ethnically highly diverse country. In addition, the country was divided in regard to religions; about 50% were Muslims, most of them living in the north and east, whereas Christians and animists dominated the south.[6] The country's first president François Tombalbaye was a southerner whose government quickly proved to be corrupt, granting favors to his political supporters in the south while marginalizing the rest of Chad. Tensions and discontent consequently grew,[7] especially as Tombalbaye also undermined the traditional local leaders who still held great respect among the people, and became increasingly authoritarian.[2] By January 1962, Tombalbaye had banned all political parties except his own Chadian Progressive Party (PPT). His treatment of opponents, real or imagined, was extremely harsh, filling the prisons with thousands of political prisoners.[8] Civilian demonstrations on 16 September 1962 were crushed by the Chadian Armed Forces, resulting in 30 deaths.[8] Several opposition groups began organising a resistance, though the first attempted insurgencies were easily suppressed by Tombalbaye's forces. Many opposition leaders fled to neighboring Sudan, where they began to prepare for a full rebellion.[2]

In order to maintain power, Tombalbaye heavily relied on French support. The Chadian Armed Forces were formed by Chadian veterans of the French military, and continued to receive training and equipment from France. In fact, France maintained a significant military presence in the country, and the nascent Chadian Air Force's first pilots were French.[4] In addition, the military and intelligence service were headed by Frenchmen: Col. Leverest commanded the Chadian Army,[9] Adjutant-Chef Albert Gelino headed the Gendarmerie,[10][11] and Camille Gourvennec led the main intelligence office, the Bureau de Coordination et de Synthèse du Renseignement (BCSR).[10] These men were ruthless in regards to their readiness to violently suppress dissidents in Chad, and appreciated by the Chadian government as well as the French government.[10] By 1968, Tombalbaye's military forces consisted of the 1,200-strong Chadian Armed Forces, the 700-strong Gendarmerie, the National and Nomadic Guard, and 120 French soldiers.[4]

This resentment at last exploded in Mangalmé riots, a tax revolt on November 1, 1965, in the Guéra Prefecture, causing 500 deaths. The year after saw the birth in Sudan of the National Liberation Front of Chad (FROLINAT), created to militarily oust Tombalbaye and the Southern dominance. It was the start of a bloody civil war. Tombalbaye then, to try and pacify the people, granted limited autonomy to northern Muslim leaders and released several political prisoners. These changes only added more leaders and rebels to the growing movement.

In the next four years, peasant revolts repeatedly broke out, while FROLINAT grew in numbers.[10]

Tombalbaye resorted to calling in French troops; while moderately successful, they were not fully able to quell the insurgency. Proving more fortunate was his choice to break with the French and seek friendly ties with Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, taking away the rebels' principal source of supplies.

But while he had reported some success against the rebels, Francois Tombalbaye started behaving more and more irrationally and brutally, continuously eroding his consensus among the southern elites, which dominated all key positions in the army, the civil service and the ruling party. As a consequence on April 13, 1975, several units of N'Djamena's gendarmerie killed Tombalbaye during a coup.

On 15 April the former commander of the national army, Felix Malloum, who had been arrested on 24 June 1973 under orders from Tombalbaye, became chairman of the Supreme Military Council; the supreme body responsible for running the country. He became head of state a few months later. As a southerner with strong kinship ties to the north, Malloum believed that he could reconcile Chad's divided regions and establish representative institutions. He set a high priority on freeing Chad from French economic and political control, but in this effort he was unsuccessful. He sent French combat forces home, but he retained several hundred French advisers and renegotiated a series of military accords to ensure emergency aid. In his position he requested the removal of French military units from Chad, resulting in France abandoning the 172 Fort-Lamy Air Base at N'Djamena International Airport.

During the summer of 1977, FROLINAT rebels under the command of Goukouni Oueddeï and supported by Libya launched a military offensive from northern Chad. This offensive witnessed the first appearance of modern Soviet military equipment in the civil war. For the first time, aircraft were threatened by a strong air defense artillery: two aircraft of the Chadian air force were shot down in the Tibesti: a C-47 by a 14.5 mm and a DC-4 by a SA-7. This forced President Malloum to seek the help of France. The latter implements the support operation that halted the rebels in southern Chad at the price of eighteen French military dead and the loss of two SEPECAT Jaguar 5 aircraft.

Following the Khartoum agreement of 1977, Habré and the Armed Forces of the North came together to oust Felix Malloum. Habré was appointed Prime Minister August 29, 1978. He attempted a coup in February 1979, but did not succeed. Goukouni Oueddei, head of the People's Armed Forces (originally composed of the union in March 1978 Frolinat - Interim Joint Military Committee, the Army Volcano and Frolinat - 1st Army), helped him in February, despite his differences with him, in overthrowing the "Southern" government. In November 1979, Goukouni Oueddei, leader of the People's Armed Forces, seized power and became president of the Transitional Government of National Unity, northerners supported by different factions close to Habré, triggering the Second Chadian Civil War.

Faced with the impossibility of reconciling the various factions vying for power, French forces left Chad on 6 May 1980.

• Chadian Civil War (disambiguation)
• Transitional Government of National Unity