Terrorism and Chad: Ethnicism, Mismanagement, and Great Power Influence

The Republic of Chad is the fifth largest state in Africa. With its gold deposits and oil reserves and the access to the largest water body in the Sahel, Lake Chad it could be one of the success stories of the region. However, the slightly more than six decades of independent history show a different path. With no majority ethnic group and a population almost equally divided between Islam and Christianity, the country has never actually worked as an organic unit. The aim of the study is to give an overview of Chad’s turbulent history and to find patterns and highlight common characteristics behind the major changes in the country’s life. The importance of the tribal backgrounds, even the clan level has had major impacts on the country’s political and military life. Built on these results, the paper focuses on the security environment and analyses the Chadian military, the Armed groups in and around Chad, Chad’s counterterrorist/counterinsurgency activities, and the activities of the Great Powers in the country and in the region. With Idriss Déby’s sudden death in 2021, the unconstitutional emergence of the Transitional Military Council with Déby’s son as its president, and the worrying dynamics of stronger presence of certain terrorist groups in the region paired with the leading country, the former colonial power France moving out or in other cases forced to move out of the wider region make it even more important to have the full picture and understand the line of events of the past, the present and to be able to better foresee upcoming turns.