FROLINAT
Encyclopedia
FROLINAT is an insurgent rebel group that was active in Chad
between 1966 and 1993.
(UNT), led by Ibrahim Abatcha
, and the General Union of the Children of Chad (Union Générale des Fils du Tchad or UGFT) which was led by Ahmed Hassan Musa
. Musa was close to the Muslim Brotherhood
and was an Islamist. The UGFT remained autonomous within the new group under the banner of the Liberation Front of Chad
(FLT). The union was agreed at the Nyala
Congress, in Sudan
, between June 19 and June 22 of 1966. The group's flag was approved at the same congress.
Secretary-general was proclaimed Abatcha, while another cadre of the UNT, Abou Bakar Djalabou, was designed to lead the delegation that was to represent the movement abroad. A committee was also selected at the congress, composed of thirty members taken equally from the UNT and the FLT. The front was composed exclusively by Muslim northerners, and there was to be no attempt to create a link with the Southern expatriates in the Central African Republic
.
The movement's official program, also approved at the Nyala congress, proclaimed the rejection of secession, confessional politics
and ethnic discrimination, and that neocolonialism
should be fought in order to "regain the total national independence of our fatherland". A coalition government
, national and democratic, was to be formed, and all political prisoner
s freed. All foreign troops were to leave, and support was to be given to national liberation movements, and a foreign policy of positive neutrality
searched. Quite vague were the economic objectives: wages would be raised, arbitrary taxes abolished and the land given to the tillers. In conclusion, "the document was so vague and so general it could have been written for any country under the sun."
While the FROLINAT was originally composed of few members, it could count on the fact that the Chadian state was already in disarray; the southern-dominated government despised and bypassed the Muslim traditional leaders, and already in 1963 the most important Northern politicians had been arrested, and all important positions in the Chadian Armed Forces
and in the local administration was kept by non-Muslim Southerners. To cite Sam Nolutschungu, "everyone knew that the regime was corrupt, cruel, arbitrary, and absurd."
This miscontent generated already in November 1965 the bloody Mangalmé riots
, that gave way to a number of loosely knitted peasant revolts in central and eastern Chad, that from Mangalmé and nearby Batha Prefecture
, rapidly spread to Ouaddaï
and Salamat
prefectures
, where in February 1967 the prefect and his deputy were killed. In northern Chad, in the BET Prefecture, also in 1965 unrest had started expanding. So Abatcha, when with seven North Korea
n trained companions, penetrated in Eastern Chad in November 1966, could count on a territory that was already in full revolt.
Musa and the most conservative elements of the FLT pulled out of the FROLINAT already at the end on 1966, but a dualism was always to remain between the socialist
, anti-imperialist
, even Pan-African
UNT element and more the conservative and regionalist UGFT tradition. Another element of division consisted in the dualism between the two originary areas of the rebellion, that is Kanem
and the East: the first region mainly attracting support from Chadians living in Egypt
and the Central African Republic, the second mainly from Sudan.
With the forces of both groups combined began in the same year to operate in the mid-east of the country, under the direct command of Abatcha. Shortly after, in March 1968, a lieutenant of Abatcha, Mohammed Taher, instigated a mutiny by the Daza
Toubou
of the Nomad and National Guard
(GNN) of Aozou, that was evacuated by the national army in September. Taher had already recruited militants among the Teda
Toubou in the Borkou, and shortly after the Aozou mutiny obtained the support of Goukouni Oueddei
, an influential figure among the Teda of the Tibesti and son of the derde
of the Toubou, Oueddei Kichidemi
. This extended the insurgency to the north and Toubou nomads, adding a new element of complexity to the rebellion and bringing in the support to the movement of the Chadians living in Libya
, and especially the students of the Islamic University of Bayda.
and former minister of Tombalbaye, who was made in 1970 new secretary-general of the FROLINAT, establishing the headquarters of the organization in Tripoli
.
In the meanwhile, Abatcha's death did not easy the situation for the government, nor did the formation in 1969 of two separate FROLINAT armies. These were the First Liberation Army of the FROLINAT, or la Première Armée, a loose coalition of warlords engaged in hit-and-run tactics, that was a faction-ridden force whose groups often fought among themselves and engaged in banditry, active mainly in central Chad; and the Second Liberation Army, or la Deuxième Armée, which operated in the north, and was composed mainly by Toubou. This last force after the death of Mohammed Taher in 1969 came under the control of Goukouni Oueddei.
These divisions did not help much the Chadian government; Tombalbaye's authority in the central and northern parts of the country limited itself to a patchwork of urban centers, often connected only by air. This forced the Chadian President to ask in 1968 for French intervention, on the ground of military accords between the two countries. The French President Charles de Gaulle
accepted in 1969, giving start on April 14 to Opération Bison
.
When Siddick made in 1971 a call for the union of the different groups he was opposed by Goukouni Oueddei
and Hissène Habré
, who commanded the Second Liberation Army of the FROLINAT, renamed Command Council of the Armed Forces of the North
(Conseil de Commandement des Forces Armeés du Nord or CCFAN) in February 1972. Only the first army of the FROLINAT, operating in eastern and centre-eastern Chad, remained loyal to Siddick. Another armed faction that emerged was the Volcan Army
, built by Muhammad Baghlani, a FROLINAT group with an Islamist tendency.
In 1969 Chadian President, François Tombalbaye
, appealed to France
for help. As a result, a French
mission arrived with ample powers to reform the army and the civil service and to recommend the abolition of unpopular laws and taxes. Also following their recommendations, the judicial powers of traditional Muslim rulers were restored. Another conciliatory move was the liberation in 1971 of many political prisoners and the formation of a more balanced government, including many more northerners than before. The result of these moves was positive; the insurgents were confined to the Tibesti and the French started retiring their troops, which had played a key role in the years 1969–1971. Certain to have defeated the FROLINAT, Tombalbaye left the reforms in the summer of 1971 and accused some of the recently freed political prisoners of having attempted a coup d'état
with the help of Libya
. In reaction Libyan president Muammar al-Gaddafi
officially recognized Abba Siddick's FROLINAT, offering him economic and logistic support. The Libyans then began to occupy the Aouzou strip.
The manifestations of student rioting in November 1971 caused the destitution of the Chadian Chief of Staff, general
Jacques Doumro; his position was occupied by colonel
Félix Malloum
. In 1972 Tombalbaye jailed hundreds of political opponents and to block his enemies initiated a policy of gestures towards Libya and France. Libya reduced its support for Siddick and infighting exploded between the first army of the FROLINAT and Habré's FAN. The first army won assuming control of Ennedi, while the FAN retired to the Borkou and Tibesti. The kidnapping at Bardaï
of a French archaeologist, Françoise Claustre
, by Habré's forces clouded the relations of the latter with France (April 1974).
In June 1973 Tombalbaye jailed his Chief of Staff General Malloum. A political opponent, the liberal
Outel Bono
, was on the verge of forming a new political party when he was assassinated in Paris
and Tombalbaye was accused of the crime. The president lost support within his party, the Chadian Progressive Party
(PPT), causing Tombalbaye to replace it with a new one, the National Movement for the Cultural and Social Revolution
(MNRCS), and to start an Africanization
campaign. The colonial names of some cities were changed with autochthonous names: Fort-Lamy became N'Djamena
, Fort-Archambault became Sarh
, among others. He himself changed his name from François to Ngarta. An element of this Africanization was the introduction of yondo initiation rites proper of the Sara
(his ethnic group) for all those who wanted to obtain positions in the civil service
and the army, rites that were seen as anti-Christian
. This, with forced "voluntary" mobilization of the population in agricultural campaigns, mined his support in the south. He also lost the support of the army by arresting many young officers whom he accused of planning a coup: as a result, Tombalbaye was killed and overthrown by a coup
on April 13, 1975. He was succeeded by Félix Malloum
as head of the Supreme Military Council (CSM). The new government included many northerners, but southerners retained a majority. Notwithstanding some popular measures, the government could not satisfy the people's demands. The capital saw new student strikes and the trade unions were suspended. In April 1976 there was an unsuccessful attempt to kill Malloum, and in March 1977 a mutiny by units army in the capital was suppressed by the execution of its ringleaders.
After the death of Tombalbaye, FROLINAT had continued its dismemberment. A group active in the east, the FLT, entered in the new government of N'Djamena in July. Oueddei Kichidemi
returned from his exile in Libya in the summer of 1975; his son Goukouni Oueddei
remained there instead. Habré and Goukouni had formed the CCFAN with the design to unite all the northern elements of the FROLINAT under their banner, but now the situation was heavily embroiled by the affair Claustre, which brought France to negotiate directly with the rebels and not sustain Tombalbaye's successor, Malloum, who reacted by asking the 1,500 French troops in Chad to leave the country.
s but of traditionally opposed clans, whom circumstances had made allies in 1971. Habré opposed the Libyan plans of annexation of the Aozou Strip
, while Goukouni was against the Claustre kidnapping. In 1976 Habré, commanding only a minority of the CCFAN, broke away from the main organization with a few hundred followers and assumed his headquarters in the Batha
and Biltine
prefectures
, founding the Armed Forces of the North
(FAN). Goukouni, along with the rest of the forces, kept the name CCFAN and gave the hostages to the French in January 1977.
In September 1977 Habré started negotiating an alliance with the Malloum and the Military Supreme Council for the formation of a national unity government
, that was created in August 1978 with Malloum as president and Habré as Prime minister. At the same time Goukouni consolidated his positions in the north, united most of the insurgent formations, including the first army of the FROLINAT and the majority of the CCFAN. All these formations united under the banner of the newly formed People's Armed Forces
(FAP), led by Goukouni, who conquered Faya-Largeau in February 1979, assuming control of half the Chadian territory. His advance towards the capital seemed unstoppable, and only the intervention of the French army made it possible to block him at Ati
, less than 300 miles north of N'Djamena.
In 1979 the national unity government was finished. Habré and Malloum confronted each other in the capital and in February Habré was left in control, while Chadian Armed Forces
(FAT) retired itself towards the south. Shortly before another FROLINAT group was had been formed in January 1978 as the Third Liberation Army of the FROLINAT (later called Popular Movement for the Liberation of Chad
, or MPLT), led by Aboubakar Abdel Rahmane
, once an ally of Goukouni; this group defeated the government's forces in the west. The First Liberation Army of the FROLINAT reassumed its autonomy, taking control of the eastern prefectures of Ouaddaï
and Biltine
. In the south the Chadian Armed Forces
, the former national army, was reorganized by the lieutenant Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué
, former head of Malloum's gendarmerie
, who established in May 1979 the south of the country a government called Permanent Committee. Goukouni took advantage of such a chaotic situation and appeared in N'Djamena before Habré had obtained complete control, and took the capital.
kept in March 1979 at Kano
a reconciliation conference. New parties with little or none roots in Chad were formed to be present at this conference, like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Chad
(FPLT), headed by Awad Muktar Nasser, a force sustained by Sudan; or the South Front, founded in April 1979, a Muslim group composed of a few dozens of fighters commanded by the Sudan
ese police sergeant
(of Chadian origin) Hadjaro al-Senousi, who boasted to lead an "original FROLINAT", and to have no less than 3,000 men ready in Sudan. Similar to these was in Sudan a so-called "Government in exile of the Islamic republic of Chad".
But only four forces were at the end invited at Kano I: these were the FAN, the FAP, Malloum for the national government, and, more surprisingly, the small MPLT, supported by Nigeria. On the basis of the Kano Accord
a national unity government was formed on April 29, 1979, with Goukouni as Interior minister
, Habré at the Defence
, the general Negue Djogo
vice-president (who represented the south, but had broken with Kamougué). The president was Lol Mahamat Choua, a protegé of Habré recommended by Nigeria. Libya protested against these arrangements because they excluded Ahmat Acyl, who had succeeded Baghlani as commander of the Volcan Army after the death of the latter in a flight accident. As a result Acyl and other pro-Libyan elements formed the Front for Joint Provisional Action (Front d'Action Commune Provisoire or FACP) to oppose the new government (it was renamed a month later Revolutionary Democratic Council). Weeks later, to settle these dissensions, another peace conference was celebrated May in the Nigerian city of Lagos
. In summer yet a new government was formed, the Transitional Government of National Unity (GUNT), after a third conference held in July at Lagos which proclaimed Goukouni president, Kamougué vice-president and Habré Defence minister. As a result, by September the French troops had left almost completely the country.
But the cohesion of the GUNT did not much survive their departure: on March 22, 1980, a new battle exploded in N'Djamena among Goukouni and Habré's forces. A few ceasefire
were negotiated, but none resisted. In the meanwhile other warlords entered in the fray: Kamougué sided with Goukouni, Acyl with Habré, leaving the city divided in two with the northern part kept by Goukouni and the southern by Habré, who lost now the Defence ministry. The fighting extended to other parts of the country. The forces of Goukouni took Faya-Largeau
and cut Habré's supply lines with Sudan. On June 15, 1980, Chad and Libya signed a treaty of mutual defence. In virtue of this agreement the forces of Kamougué and Goukouni received tanks, airplanes and other materials, and crushed the forces of Habré who fled to Cameroon
while his men in the capital and the east of the country were disarmed.
In 1981 the governments of Chad and Libya announced their intention to form a single country. But French increasing support for Goukouni prepared what happened on October 29, 1981, when the GUNT's president asked Libyan troops to leave the country. A multi-national contingent of Africa
n peace-keepers was to be sent, but only small Nigerian, Senegal
ese and Zairian
forces arrived. Libya's president, Qaddafi, accepted to retire Libyan soldiers in exchange for being chosen for the presidency of the Organisation of African Unity (OUA), and a year was fixed for completing the withdrawal of all the Libyans from Chad.
and Faya-Largeau. The OUA demanded in February 1982, but its request was ignored. By May the GUNT was stationed on the defensive in the capital, when Kamougué retired his forces to crush a revolt that had exploded in the south. Habré didn't loose this opportunity, and on June 7, 1982, he conquered the capital almost without opposition, while Goukouni escaped to Cameroon. On June 19 Habré formed a State Council as new national government, and on October 21 he proclaimed himself President and nominated a new government. Goukouni and his followers regrouped in the north and obtained the support of Libya, which caused Habré to reclaim the Aouzou Strip which had been annexed by Libya.
On October 28 Goukouni allied eight of the eleven tendencies represented in the GUNT and formed the National Government for Peace in Chad (GNPT) and the Liberation Armed Forces (FAL), both headed by him. The FAL's first goal was to capture Faya-Largeau, which was attacked in January 1983; Habré sent his forces to defend the town, but they were defeated on February 20. Notwithstanding this, Faya-Largeau remained in Habré's hands. Goukouni reported some other victories in the north, but in the meanwhile Habré was being given abundant help by France and the west to counter the Libyan-supported Goukouni.
In March 1983 Chad requested the United Nations
the recognition of Chadian sovereignty over the Aozou Strip, and posed the case of the Libyan occupation to the International Court of Justice
of The Hague
. But the FAL conquered on June 25 Faya-Largeau, and with it a third of the country; an attack on the capital appeared imminent, but it never happened also for France's strong support of Habré; great amounts of modern military equipment were provided to him by France and other western countries, giving him the possibility to retake Faya-Largeau on July 30. Libya reacted by launching a massive counter-offensive composed almost entirely by Libyan regular troops: Habré was inflicted on August 10 a crushing defeat, losing thousand of soldiers and falling back 200 km to the south.
On November 18, 1986 the GUNT was reconstituted under the direction of Habré and with participation of Goukouni and Kamougué. In 1989 opposition groups to Habré's rule present in Sudan, under the command of Idriss Déby
, formed the Patriotic Salvation Movement
(MPS) and initiated a new phase of the civil war. After conquering Abéché
, in December 1990 they entered in the capital. Habré was forced once again to escape, but a few months later attempted from September 1991 to January 1992 a counter-offensive that proved unsuccessful. Finally a national conference attended by all the parties and guerrilla forces took place between January 15 and April 6, 1993, that culminated with the formation of a High Transitional Council under the presidency of Déby. The FROLINAT, of which Goukouni was still nominally the head, dissolved itself on January 14, 1993.
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
between 1966 and 1993.
Origins
The organization was born as the result of a political union between the leftist Chadian National UnionChadian National Union
The Chadian National Union was a radical Muslim political party founded in 1958 in Chad by Issa Dana, Mahamut Outman and Abba Siddick. Created to lobby the NO-vote to the referendum on Chad's entry in the French Community, the party advocated drastic political reforms, to be achieved if necessary...
(UNT), led by Ibrahim Abatcha
Ibrahim Abatcha
Ibrahim Abatcha was a Muslim Chadian politician reputed of Marxist leanings and associations. His political activity started during the decolonization process of Chad from France, but after the country's independence he was forced to go in exile due to the increasing authoritarism of the country's...
, and the General Union of the Children of Chad (Union Générale des Fils du Tchad or UGFT) which was led by Ahmed Hassan Musa
Ahmed Hassan Musa
Ahmed Hassan Musa was a Chadian insurgent who participated to the first phase of the Chadian Civil War. An islamic fundamentalist close to the Muslim Brotherhood, he was head of the General Union of the Children of Chad , an islamic political party formed by Chadian exiles in Sudan...
. Musa was close to the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
and was an Islamist. The UGFT remained autonomous within the new group under the banner of the Liberation Front of Chad
Liberation Front of Chad
The Liberation Front of Chad was an insurgent group active between 1965 and 1976 during the first phase of the Chadian Civil War....
(FLT). The union was agreed at the Nyala
Nyala, Sudan
Nyala is the capital of South Darfur state in the western part of the Sudan. Nyala is located at elevation 2,208 feet in the Darfur historical region.- History :...
Congress, in Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, between June 19 and June 22 of 1966. The group's flag was approved at the same congress.
Secretary-general was proclaimed Abatcha, while another cadre of the UNT, Abou Bakar Djalabou, was designed to lead the delegation that was to represent the movement abroad. A committee was also selected at the congress, composed of thirty members taken equally from the UNT and the FLT. The front was composed exclusively by Muslim northerners, and there was to be no attempt to create a link with the Southern expatriates in the Central African Republic
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...
.
The movement's official program, also approved at the Nyala congress, proclaimed the rejection of secession, confessional politics
Confessionalism (politics)
Confessionalism is a system of government that refers to de jure mix of religion and politics. It can mean distributing political and institutional power proportionally among religious communities.-Debate:...
and ethnic discrimination, and that neocolonialism
Neocolonialism
Neocolonialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization, and cultural forces to control a country in lieu of direct military or political control...
should be fought in order to "regain the total national independence of our fatherland". A coalition government
Coalition government
A coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate. The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament...
, national and democratic, was to be formed, and all political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s freed. All foreign troops were to leave, and support was to be given to national liberation movements, and a foreign policy of positive neutrality
Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement is a group of states considering themselves not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc. As of 2011, the movement had 120 members and 17 observer countries...
searched. Quite vague were the economic objectives: wages would be raised, arbitrary taxes abolished and the land given to the tillers. In conclusion, "the document was so vague and so general it could have been written for any country under the sun."
While the FROLINAT was originally composed of few members, it could count on the fact that the Chadian state was already in disarray; the southern-dominated government despised and bypassed the Muslim traditional leaders, and already in 1963 the most important Northern politicians had been arrested, and all important positions in the Chadian Armed Forces
Chadian Armed Forces
The Chadian Armed Forces were the army of the central government of Chad from 1960 to 1979, under the southern presidents François Tombalbaye and Félix Malloum, until the downfall of the latter in 1979, when the head of the gendarmerie, Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué, assumed command...
and in the local administration was kept by non-Muslim Southerners. To cite Sam Nolutschungu, "everyone knew that the regime was corrupt, cruel, arbitrary, and absurd."
This miscontent generated already in November 1965 the bloody Mangalmé riots
Mangalmé riots
The Mangalmé riots are clashes that erupted in central Chad, starting in the village of Mangalmé in the Guéra Prefecture. Here on November 1, 1965, frustration among the muslim Moubi peasantry with what was perceived as government mismanagement and tax collection abuses erupted, rapidly involving...
, that gave way to a number of loosely knitted peasant revolts in central and eastern Chad, that from Mangalmé and nearby Batha Prefecture
Batha Prefecture
This article refers to one of the former prefectures of Chad. From 2002 the country was divided into 18 regions.Batha was one of the 14 prefectures of Chad. Located in the center of the country, Batha covered an area of 88,800 square kilometers and had a population of 288,458 in 1993. Its capital...
, rapidly spread to Ouaddaï
Ouaddaï Prefecture
This article refers to one of the former prefectures of Chad. From 2002 the country was divided into 18 regions.Ouaddaï was one of the 14 prefectures of Chad. Located in the east of the country, Ouaddaï covered an area of 76,240 square kilometers and had a population of 543,900 in 1993. Its...
and Salamat
Salamat Prefecture
This article refers to one of the former prefectures of Chad. From 2002 the country was divided into 18 regions.Salamat was one of the 14 prefectures of Chad. Located in the southeast of the country, Salamat covered an area of 63,000 square kilometers and had a population of 184,403 in 1993...
prefectures
Prefectures of Chad
Chad was divided into 14 prefectures from 1960, the year of independence, to 1999, when the country was divided in 28 departments:A further reorganisation in 2002 divided the country into the current 18 regions.NB : Alphabetic order...
, where in February 1967 the prefect and his deputy were killed. In northern Chad, in the BET Prefecture, also in 1965 unrest had started expanding. So Abatcha, when with seven North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
n trained companions, penetrated in Eastern Chad in November 1966, could count on a territory that was already in full revolt.
Musa and the most conservative elements of the FLT pulled out of the FROLINAT already at the end on 1966, but a dualism was always to remain between the socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, anti-imperialist
Anti-imperialism
Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking, is a term that may be applied to a movement opposed to any form of colonialism or imperialism. Anti-imperialism includes opposition to wars of conquest, particularly of non-contiguous territory or people with a different language or culture; it also includes...
, even Pan-African
Pan-Africanism
Pan-Africanism is a movement that seeks to unify African people or people living in Africa, into a "one African community". Differing types of Pan-Africanism seek different levels of economic, racial, social, or political unity...
UNT element and more the conservative and regionalist UGFT tradition. Another element of division consisted in the dualism between the two originary areas of the rebellion, that is Kanem
Kanem Prefecture
This article refers to one of the former prefectures of Chad. From 2002 the country was divided into 18 regions.Kanem was one of the 14 prefectures of Chad. Located in the west of the country, Kanem covered an area of 114,520 square kilometers and had a population of 279,927 in 1993. Its capital...
and the East: the first region mainly attracting support from Chadians living in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and the Central African Republic, the second mainly from Sudan.
With the forces of both groups combined began in the same year to operate in the mid-east of the country, under the direct command of Abatcha. Shortly after, in March 1968, a lieutenant of Abatcha, Mohammed Taher, instigated a mutiny by the Daza
Daza
The Daza people are a semi-nomadic ethnicity living primarily in the Sahara regions of south-eastern Niger and north and central Chad. They consider themselves a warrior people, and are almost entirely Muslim. The Daza speak the Dazaga language. The increasing desertification of Africa has resulted...
Toubou
Toubou
The Tubu are an ethnic group that live mainly in northern Chad, but also in Libya, Niger and Sudan....
of the Nomad and National Guard
Nomad and National Guard
The National and Nomadic Guard of Chad is one of four defence and security forces in Chad....
(GNN) of Aozou, that was evacuated by the national army in September. Taher had already recruited militants among the Teda
Teda
The Teda are a Toubou people who live mostly in northern Chad, but is present also in Libya, Niger and Nigeria. They speak Tedaga, a Nilo-Saharan language, and are very close ethnically and culturally with the Daza. They likely number more than 50,000, and are Muslims....
Toubou in the Borkou, and shortly after the Aozou mutiny obtained the support of Goukouni Oueddei
Goukouni Oueddei
Goukouni Oueddei is a Chadian political figure. He was Head of State of Chad from 1979 to 1982. He is currently in exile.-Biography:...
, an influential figure among the Teda of the Tibesti and son of the derde
Derde
The derde is the title held by the highest religious and political authority among the Toubou Teda of the Tibesti, in north-western Chad...
of the Toubou, Oueddei Kichidemi
Oueddei Kichidemi
Oueddei Kichidemi was the father of the former Chadian President Goukouni Oueddei and was the tribal leader, or derde, of the Toubou Teda of the Tibesti during the Chadian Civil War....
. This extended the insurgency to the north and Toubou nomads, adding a new element of complexity to the rebellion and bringing in the support to the movement of the Chadians living in Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, and especially the students of the Islamic University of Bayda.
Dissensions
On February 11, 1968 Abatcha was killed in combat and a battle for succession ensued, in which two candidates were assassinated and a third was forced to escape to Sudan. At the end had emerged victorious Abba Sidick, a moderate left-wing intellectualIntellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
and former minister of Tombalbaye, who was made in 1970 new secretary-general of the FROLINAT, establishing the headquarters of the organization in Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
.
In the meanwhile, Abatcha's death did not easy the situation for the government, nor did the formation in 1969 of two separate FROLINAT armies. These were the First Liberation Army of the FROLINAT, or la Première Armée, a loose coalition of warlords engaged in hit-and-run tactics, that was a faction-ridden force whose groups often fought among themselves and engaged in banditry, active mainly in central Chad; and the Second Liberation Army, or la Deuxième Armée, which operated in the north, and was composed mainly by Toubou. This last force after the death of Mohammed Taher in 1969 came under the control of Goukouni Oueddei.
These divisions did not help much the Chadian government; Tombalbaye's authority in the central and northern parts of the country limited itself to a patchwork of urban centers, often connected only by air. This forced the Chadian President to ask in 1968 for French intervention, on the ground of military accords between the two countries. The French President Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
accepted in 1969, giving start on April 14 to Opération Bison
Opération Bison
Opération Bison is the name given to the French military operation in Chad in the years 1969–1972.Chad was a former French colony that had become independent in 1960. In 1965 erupted the Chadian Civil War, and a year later the FROLINAT, an insurgent group, was formed to overthrow the Chadian...
.
When Siddick made in 1971 a call for the union of the different groups he was opposed by Goukouni Oueddei
Goukouni Oueddei
Goukouni Oueddei is a Chadian political figure. He was Head of State of Chad from 1979 to 1982. He is currently in exile.-Biography:...
and Hissène Habré
Hissène Habré
Hissène Habré , also spelled Hissen Habré, was the leader of Chad from 1982 until he was deposed in 1990.-Early life:...
, who commanded the Second Liberation Army of the FROLINAT, renamed Command Council of the Armed Forces of the North
Command Council of the Armed Forces of the North
The Command Council of the Armed Forces of the North was a Chadian rebel army active during the Chadian Civil War. Originally called Second Liberation Army of National Liberation Front of Chad , and was one of the original groups in rebellion against the regime of François Tombalbaye...
(Conseil de Commandement des Forces Armeés du Nord or CCFAN) in February 1972. Only the first army of the FROLINAT, operating in eastern and centre-eastern Chad, remained loyal to Siddick. Another armed faction that emerged was the Volcan Army
Volcan Army
The Volcan Army was a Chadian insurgent rebel group that was active during the Chadian Civil War. The movement was founded in 1970 by the Arab insurgent leader Mohamed Baghlani, who had been expelled in June from the FROLINAT by the organization's secretary-general Abba Siddick...
, built by Muhammad Baghlani, a FROLINAT group with an Islamist tendency.
In 1969 Chadian President, François Tombalbaye
François Tombalbaye
François Tombalbaye, also called Ngarta Tombalbaye , was a teacher and a trade union activist who served as the first president of Chad. He was born in the southern region of the country in the Moyen-Chari Prefecture near the city of Koumara and was of the Sara ethnic group, the prominent ethnicity...
, appealed to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
for help. As a result, a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
mission arrived with ample powers to reform the army and the civil service and to recommend the abolition of unpopular laws and taxes. Also following their recommendations, the judicial powers of traditional Muslim rulers were restored. Another conciliatory move was the liberation in 1971 of many political prisoners and the formation of a more balanced government, including many more northerners than before. The result of these moves was positive; the insurgents were confined to the Tibesti and the French started retiring their troops, which had played a key role in the years 1969–1971. Certain to have defeated the FROLINAT, Tombalbaye left the reforms in the summer of 1971 and accused some of the recently freed political prisoners of having attempted a coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
with the help of Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
. In reaction Libyan president Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
officially recognized Abba Siddick's FROLINAT, offering him economic and logistic support. The Libyans then began to occupy the Aouzou strip.
The manifestations of student rioting in November 1971 caused the destitution of the Chadian Chief of Staff, general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Jacques Doumro; his position was occupied by colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Félix Malloum
Félix Malloum
General Félix Malloum or Félix Malloum Ngakoutou Bey-Ndi was a Chadian politician from the south. He served as an officer in the Chadian Military and as a member of the ruling Chadian Progressive Party . He later became the Chief of Staff with the rank of colonel...
. In 1972 Tombalbaye jailed hundreds of political opponents and to block his enemies initiated a policy of gestures towards Libya and France. Libya reduced its support for Siddick and infighting exploded between the first army of the FROLINAT and Habré's FAN. The first army won assuming control of Ennedi, while the FAN retired to the Borkou and Tibesti. The kidnapping at Bardaï
Bardai, Chad
Bardaï is a small town and oasis in the extreme north of Chad. It is the main town of the Tibesti Region, which was formed in 2008 from the Tibesti Department of the former Bourkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region....
of a French archaeologist, Françoise Claustre
Françoise Claustre
Françoise Claustre , was a French archeologist who was taken hostage by a group of Chadian rebels, led by Hissène Habré, on 20 April 1974, at Bardaï, in the Tibesti Mountains of northern Chad. At the same time, the rebels also seized a German doctor, Christophe Staewen, and Marc Combe, who was an...
, by Habré's forces clouded the relations of the latter with France (April 1974).
In June 1973 Tombalbaye jailed his Chief of Staff General Malloum. A political opponent, the liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
Outel Bono
Outel Bono
Outel Bono was a Chadian medical doctor and politician.He was medical director of the hospital in Chad's capital, Fort-Lamy , in 1963 when he was arrested for plotting against the government of President François Tombalbaye. Condemned to death, his sentence was commuted after a vigorous campaign...
, was on the verge of forming a new political party when he was assassinated in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Tombalbaye was accused of the crime. The president lost support within his party, the Chadian Progressive Party
Chadian Progressive Party
The Chadian Progressive Party was the first African political party created in Chad, active from 1947 to 1973...
(PPT), causing Tombalbaye to replace it with a new one, the National Movement for the Cultural and Social Revolution
National Movement for the Cultural and Social Revolution
The National Movement for the Cultural and Social Revolution was a political party in Chad. It was the successor to the Chadian Progressive Party and existed from 1973 to 1975 as the country's sole legal party, under the strict control of the President Ngarta Tombalbaye...
(MNRCS), and to start an Africanization
Africanization
Africanization or Africanisation has been applied in various contexts, notably in naming and in the composition of staff.-Africanization of names:...
campaign. The colonial names of some cities were changed with autochthonous names: Fort-Lamy became N'Djamena
N'Djamena
N'Djamena is the capital and largest city of Chad. A port on the Chari River, near the confluence with the Logone River, it directly faces the Cameroonian town of Kousséri, to which the city is connected by a bridge. It is also a special statute region, divided in 10 arrondissements. It is a...
, Fort-Archambault became Sarh
Sarh
Sarh is the third largest city in Chad, after N'Djamena and Moundou. It is the capital of Moyen-Chari region and the department of Barh Köh. It lies 350 miles south-east of the capital Ndjamena on the Chari River...
, among others. He himself changed his name from François to Ngarta. An element of this Africanization was the introduction of yondo initiation rites proper of the Sara
Sara people
The Sara are an ethnic group in Central Africa, who reside mostly in Chad, making up approximatively 30% of its southern population.-In Chad:...
(his ethnic group) for all those who wanted to obtain positions in the civil service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
and the army, rites that were seen as anti-Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. This, with forced "voluntary" mobilization of the population in agricultural campaigns, mined his support in the south. He also lost the support of the army by arresting many young officers whom he accused of planning a coup: as a result, Tombalbaye was killed and overthrown by a coup
Chadian coup of 1975
The Chadian coup of 1975 was in considerable part generated by the growing distrust of the President of Chad, François Tombalbaye, for the army. This distrust came in part from the Chadian Armed Forces incapacity to deal with the rebellion that was inflaming the Muslim north from when the rebel...
on April 13, 1975. He was succeeded by Félix Malloum
Félix Malloum
General Félix Malloum or Félix Malloum Ngakoutou Bey-Ndi was a Chadian politician from the south. He served as an officer in the Chadian Military and as a member of the ruling Chadian Progressive Party . He later became the Chief of Staff with the rank of colonel...
as head of the Supreme Military Council (CSM). The new government included many northerners, but southerners retained a majority. Notwithstanding some popular measures, the government could not satisfy the people's demands. The capital saw new student strikes and the trade unions were suspended. In April 1976 there was an unsuccessful attempt to kill Malloum, and in March 1977 a mutiny by units army in the capital was suppressed by the execution of its ringleaders.
After the death of Tombalbaye, FROLINAT had continued its dismemberment. A group active in the east, the FLT, entered in the new government of N'Djamena in July. Oueddei Kichidemi
Oueddei Kichidemi
Oueddei Kichidemi was the father of the former Chadian President Goukouni Oueddei and was the tribal leader, or derde, of the Toubou Teda of the Tibesti during the Chadian Civil War....
returned from his exile in Libya in the summer of 1975; his son Goukouni Oueddei
Goukouni Oueddei
Goukouni Oueddei is a Chadian political figure. He was Head of State of Chad from 1979 to 1982. He is currently in exile.-Biography:...
remained there instead. Habré and Goukouni had formed the CCFAN with the design to unite all the northern elements of the FROLINAT under their banner, but now the situation was heavily embroiled by the affair Claustre, which brought France to negotiate directly with the rebels and not sustain Tombalbaye's successor, Malloum, who reacted by asking the 1,500 French troops in Chad to leave the country.
Goukouni vs. Habré
In 1976 and 1977 Libya supported active to the FROLINAT. Faya-Largeau was besieged twice in 1976 and Bardaï was conquered in June 1977 by Habré. The question of Libyan support caused a rupture between Goukouni and Habré, both ToubouToubou
The Tubu are an ethnic group that live mainly in northern Chad, but also in Libya, Niger and Sudan....
s but of traditionally opposed clans, whom circumstances had made allies in 1971. Habré opposed the Libyan plans of annexation of the Aozou Strip
Aozou Strip
The Aouzou Strip is a strip of land in northern Chad which lies along the border with Libya, extending south to a depth of about 100 kilometers into Chad's Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Region for an area of 114,000 km²...
, while Goukouni was against the Claustre kidnapping. In 1976 Habré, commanding only a minority of the CCFAN, broke away from the main organization with a few hundred followers and assumed his headquarters in the Batha
Batha Prefecture
This article refers to one of the former prefectures of Chad. From 2002 the country was divided into 18 regions.Batha was one of the 14 prefectures of Chad. Located in the center of the country, Batha covered an area of 88,800 square kilometers and had a population of 288,458 in 1993. Its capital...
and Biltine
Biltine Prefecture
This article refers to one of the former prefectures of Chad. From 2002 the country was divided into 18 regions.Biltine was one of the 14 prefectures of Chad. Located in the east of the country, Biltine covered an area of 46,850 square kilometers and had a population of 184,807 in 1993. Its capital...
prefectures
Prefectures of Chad
Chad was divided into 14 prefectures from 1960, the year of independence, to 1999, when the country was divided in 28 departments:A further reorganisation in 2002 divided the country into the current 18 regions.NB : Alphabetic order...
, founding the Armed Forces of the North
Armed Forces of the North
The Armed Forces of the North was a Chadian rebel army active during the Chadian Civil War. Composed of FROLINAT units that remained loyal to Hissène Habré following his break from Goukouni Oueddei and the CCFAN in 1976...
(FAN). Goukouni, along with the rest of the forces, kept the name CCFAN and gave the hostages to the French in January 1977.
In September 1977 Habré started negotiating an alliance with the Malloum and the Military Supreme Council for the formation of a national unity government
National unity government
A national unity government, government of national unity, or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other national emergency.- Canada :During World War I the Conservative government of Sir...
, that was created in August 1978 with Malloum as president and Habré as Prime minister. At the same time Goukouni consolidated his positions in the north, united most of the insurgent formations, including the first army of the FROLINAT and the majority of the CCFAN. All these formations united under the banner of the newly formed People's Armed Forces
People's Armed Forces
The People's Armed Forces was a Chadian insurgent group composed of followers of Goukouni Oueddei after the schism with Hissène Habré in 1976...
(FAP), led by Goukouni, who conquered Faya-Largeau in February 1979, assuming control of half the Chadian territory. His advance towards the capital seemed unstoppable, and only the intervention of the French army made it possible to block him at Ati
Ati, Chad
Ati is a city in Chad, the capital of the region of Batha. It lies 278 miles by road east of the capital N'Djamena. The town is served by Ati Airport....
, less than 300 miles north of N'Djamena.
In 1979 the national unity government was finished. Habré and Malloum confronted each other in the capital and in February Habré was left in control, while Chadian Armed Forces
Chadian Armed Forces
The Chadian Armed Forces were the army of the central government of Chad from 1960 to 1979, under the southern presidents François Tombalbaye and Félix Malloum, until the downfall of the latter in 1979, when the head of the gendarmerie, Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué, assumed command...
(FAT) retired itself towards the south. Shortly before another FROLINAT group was had been formed in January 1978 as the Third Liberation Army of the FROLINAT (later called Popular Movement for the Liberation of Chad
Popular Movement for the Liberation of Chad
The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Chad was a small rebel group active in Chad during the civil war....
, or MPLT), led by Aboubakar Abdel Rahmane
Aboubakar Abdel Rahmane
Aboubakar Abdel Rahmane was a Chadian warlord active during the civil war . His early life is very undocumented, and his date of birth is unknown. A semi-literate Muslim Kanembu, he originally belonged to Goukouni Oueddei's People's Armed Forces...
, once an ally of Goukouni; this group defeated the government's forces in the west. The First Liberation Army of the FROLINAT reassumed its autonomy, taking control of the eastern prefectures of Ouaddaï
Ouaddaï Prefecture
This article refers to one of the former prefectures of Chad. From 2002 the country was divided into 18 regions.Ouaddaï was one of the 14 prefectures of Chad. Located in the east of the country, Ouaddaï covered an area of 76,240 square kilometers and had a population of 543,900 in 1993. Its...
and Biltine
Biltine Prefecture
This article refers to one of the former prefectures of Chad. From 2002 the country was divided into 18 regions.Biltine was one of the 14 prefectures of Chad. Located in the east of the country, Biltine covered an area of 46,850 square kilometers and had a population of 184,807 in 1993. Its capital...
. In the south the Chadian Armed Forces
Chadian Armed Forces
The Chadian Armed Forces were the army of the central government of Chad from 1960 to 1979, under the southern presidents François Tombalbaye and Félix Malloum, until the downfall of the latter in 1979, when the head of the gendarmerie, Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué, assumed command...
, the former national army, was reorganized by the lieutenant Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué
Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué
Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué was a Chadian politician and former army officer. Kamougué was a leading figure in the 1975 coup d'état and since then he has held several positions in the Chadian government and legislature. He was Vice-President from 1979 to 1982 and was President of the National...
, former head of Malloum's gendarmerie
Gendarmerie
A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military force charged with police duties among civilian populations. Members of such a force are typically called "gendarmes". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes a gendarme as "a soldier who is employed on police duties" and a "gendarmery, -erie" as...
, who established in May 1979 the south of the country a government called Permanent Committee. Goukouni took advantage of such a chaotic situation and appeared in N'Djamena before Habré had obtained complete control, and took the capital.
The GUNT and its failure
International moves were made to put an end to the civil war. NigeriaNigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
kept in March 1979 at Kano
Kano
Kano is a city in Nigeria and the capital of Kano State in Northern Nigeria. Its metropolitan population is the second largest in Nigeria after Lagos. The Kano Urban area covers 137 sq.km and comprises six Local Government Area - Kano Municipal, Fagge, Dala, Gwale, Tarauni and Nassarawa - with a...
a reconciliation conference. New parties with little or none roots in Chad were formed to be present at this conference, like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Chad
Popular Front for the Liberation of Chad
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Chad was a small insurgent group active during the Chadian Civil War. Founded in 1968 by Awad Mukhtar Nasser, it was based in Sudan and operated along the Chad-Sudan border...
(FPLT), headed by Awad Muktar Nasser, a force sustained by Sudan; or the South Front, founded in April 1979, a Muslim group composed of a few dozens of fighters commanded by the Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
ese police sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
(of Chadian origin) Hadjaro al-Senousi, who boasted to lead an "original FROLINAT", and to have no less than 3,000 men ready in Sudan. Similar to these was in Sudan a so-called "Government in exile of the Islamic republic of Chad".
But only four forces were at the end invited at Kano I: these were the FAN, the FAP, Malloum for the national government, and, more surprisingly, the small MPLT, supported by Nigeria. On the basis of the Kano Accord
Kano Accord
The Kano Accord was preceded by the collapse of central authority in Chad in 1979, when the Prime Minister Hissène Habré had unleashed on February 12 his militias against the capital N'Djamena and the president Félix Malloum...
a national unity government was formed on April 29, 1979, with Goukouni as Interior minister
Interior minister
An interior ministry is a government ministry typically responsible for policing, national security, and immigration matters. The ministry is often headed by a minister of the interior or minister of home affairs...
, Habré at the Defence
Defence minister
A defence minister is a person in a cabinet position in charge of a Ministry of Defence, which regulates the armed forces in some sovereign nations...
, the general Negue Djogo
Negue Djogo
Negue Djogo was a Chadian officer and politician.A French-trained Sara officer, his first prominent assignment came in 1966 when, still a lieutenant, he was made by President François Tombalbaye prefect of the key Bourkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region, which France, Chad's former colonial power, had...
vice-president (who represented the south, but had broken with Kamougué). The president was Lol Mahamat Choua, a protegé of Habré recommended by Nigeria. Libya protested against these arrangements because they excluded Ahmat Acyl, who had succeeded Baghlani as commander of the Volcan Army after the death of the latter in a flight accident. As a result Acyl and other pro-Libyan elements formed the Front for Joint Provisional Action (Front d'Action Commune Provisoire or FACP) to oppose the new government (it was renamed a month later Revolutionary Democratic Council). Weeks later, to settle these dissensions, another peace conference was celebrated May in the Nigerian city of Lagos
Lagos
Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...
. In summer yet a new government was formed, the Transitional Government of National Unity (GUNT), after a third conference held in July at Lagos which proclaimed Goukouni president, Kamougué vice-president and Habré Defence minister. As a result, by September the French troops had left almost completely the country.
But the cohesion of the GUNT did not much survive their departure: on March 22, 1980, a new battle exploded in N'Djamena among Goukouni and Habré's forces. A few ceasefire
Ceasefire
A ceasefire is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be declared as part of a formal treaty, but they have also been called as part of an informal understanding between opposing forces...
were negotiated, but none resisted. In the meanwhile other warlords entered in the fray: Kamougué sided with Goukouni, Acyl with Habré, leaving the city divided in two with the northern part kept by Goukouni and the southern by Habré, who lost now the Defence ministry. The fighting extended to other parts of the country. The forces of Goukouni took Faya-Largeau
Faya-Largeau
Located in the Sahara, Faya's climate is classed as hot desert on the Köppen climate classification. It experiences hot winters and very hot summers with the peak average maximum temperature reaching in May and the average minimum reaching its lowest in January at . Rainfall averages out at about...
and cut Habré's supply lines with Sudan. On June 15, 1980, Chad and Libya signed a treaty of mutual defence. In virtue of this agreement the forces of Kamougué and Goukouni received tanks, airplanes and other materials, and crushed the forces of Habré who fled to Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
while his men in the capital and the east of the country were disarmed.
In 1981 the governments of Chad and Libya announced their intention to form a single country. But French increasing support for Goukouni prepared what happened on October 29, 1981, when the GUNT's president asked Libyan troops to leave the country. A multi-national contingent of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n peace-keepers was to be sent, but only small Nigerian, Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
ese and Zairian
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
forces arrived. Libya's president, Qaddafi, accepted to retire Libyan soldiers in exchange for being chosen for the presidency of the Organisation of African Unity (OUA), and a year was fixed for completing the withdrawal of all the Libyans from Chad.
Habré ascends to power
In the meanwhile, Habré was reorganizing his forces in the east with Sudanese help, and had started campaigning taking several cities, and controlled part of the prefectures of Ouaddaï and Biltine. In December the FAN, convinced that they could not seize Libyan materials, passed west and seized Ourn Hadjer, AtiAti, Chad
Ati is a city in Chad, the capital of the region of Batha. It lies 278 miles by road east of the capital N'Djamena. The town is served by Ati Airport....
and Faya-Largeau. The OUA demanded in February 1982, but its request was ignored. By May the GUNT was stationed on the defensive in the capital, when Kamougué retired his forces to crush a revolt that had exploded in the south. Habré didn't loose this opportunity, and on June 7, 1982, he conquered the capital almost without opposition, while Goukouni escaped to Cameroon. On June 19 Habré formed a State Council as new national government, and on October 21 he proclaimed himself President and nominated a new government. Goukouni and his followers regrouped in the north and obtained the support of Libya, which caused Habré to reclaim the Aouzou Strip which had been annexed by Libya.
On October 28 Goukouni allied eight of the eleven tendencies represented in the GUNT and formed the National Government for Peace in Chad (GNPT) and the Liberation Armed Forces (FAL), both headed by him. The FAL's first goal was to capture Faya-Largeau, which was attacked in January 1983; Habré sent his forces to defend the town, but they were defeated on February 20. Notwithstanding this, Faya-Largeau remained in Habré's hands. Goukouni reported some other victories in the north, but in the meanwhile Habré was being given abundant help by France and the west to counter the Libyan-supported Goukouni.
In March 1983 Chad requested the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
the recognition of Chadian sovereignty over the Aozou Strip, and posed the case of the Libyan occupation to the International Court of Justice
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...
of The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
. But the FAL conquered on June 25 Faya-Largeau, and with it a third of the country; an attack on the capital appeared imminent, but it never happened also for France's strong support of Habré; great amounts of modern military equipment were provided to him by France and other western countries, giving him the possibility to retake Faya-Largeau on July 30. Libya reacted by launching a massive counter-offensive composed almost entirely by Libyan regular troops: Habré was inflicted on August 10 a crushing defeat, losing thousand of soldiers and falling back 200 km to the south.
On November 18, 1986 the GUNT was reconstituted under the direction of Habré and with participation of Goukouni and Kamougué. In 1989 opposition groups to Habré's rule present in Sudan, under the command of Idriss Déby
Idriss Déby
General Idriss Déby Itno is the President of Chad and the head of the Patriotic Salvation Movement. Déby is of the Bidyat clan of the Zaghawa ethnic group. He added "Itno" to his surname in January 2006.-Rise to power:...
, formed the Patriotic Salvation Movement
Patriotic Salvation Movement
The Patriotic Salvation Movement is the ruling political party in Chad.After Idriss Déby, an army commander who participated in an unsuccessful plot against President Hissène Habré in 1989, fled to Sudan, he and his supporters, known as the April 1 Movement, operated from Sudan with Libyan backing...
(MPS) and initiated a new phase of the civil war. After conquering Abéché
Abéché
-Demographics:Demographic evolution:-References:...
, in December 1990 they entered in the capital. Habré was forced once again to escape, but a few months later attempted from September 1991 to January 1992 a counter-offensive that proved unsuccessful. Finally a national conference attended by all the parties and guerrilla forces took place between January 15 and April 6, 1993, that culminated with the formation of a High Transitional Council under the presidency of Déby. The FROLINAT, of which Goukouni was still nominally the head, dissolved itself on January 14, 1993.