{ "Introduction": { "Background": { "text": "
Chad emerged from a collection of powerful states that controlled the Sahelian belt starting around the 9th century. These states focused on controlling trans-Saharan trade routes and profited mostly from the slave trade. The Kanem-Bornu Empire, centered around the Lake Chad Basin, existed between the 9th and 19th centuries, and at its peak, the empire controlled territory stretching from southern Chad to southern Libya and included portions of modern-day Algeria, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria, and Sudan. The Sudanese warlord Rabih AZ-ZUBAYR used an army comprised largely of slaves to conquer the Kanem-Bornu Empire in the late 19th century. In southeastern Chad, the Bagirmi and Ouaddai (Wadai) kingdoms emerged in the 15th and 16th centuries and lasted until the arrival of the French in the 19th and 20th centuries. France began moving into the region in the late 1880s and defeated the Bagirmi kingdom in 1897, Rabih AZ-ZUBAYR in 1900, and the Ouddai kingdom in 1909. In the arid regions of northern Chad and southern Libya, an Islamic order called the Sanusiyya (Sanusi) relied heavily on the trans-Saharan slave trade and had upwards of 3 million followers by the 1880s. The French defeated the Sanusiyya in 1910 after years of intermittent war. By 1910, France had incorporated the northern arid region, the Lake Chad Basin, and southeastern Chad into French Equatorial Africa.
Chad achieved its independence in 1960 and then saw three decades of instability, oppressive rule, civil war, and a Libyan invasion. With the help of the French military and several African countries, Chadian leaders expelled Libyan forces during the 1987 \"Toyota War,\" so named for the use of Toyota pickup trucks as fighting vehicles. In 1990, Chadian general Idriss DEBY led a rebellion against President Hissene HABRE. Under DEBY, Chad approved a constitution and held elections in 1996. Shortly after DEBY was killed during a rebel incursion in 2021, a group of military officials -- led by DEBY’s son, Mahamat Idriss DEBY -- took control of the government. The military officials dismissed the National Assembly, suspended the Constitution, and formed a Transitional Military Council (TMC), while pledging to hold democratic elections by October 2022. A national dialogue in August-October 2022 culminated in decisions to extend the transition for up to two years, dissolve the TMC, and appoint Mahamat DEBY as Transitional President; the transitional authorities held a constitutional referendum in December 2023 and claimed 86 percent of votes were in favor of the new constitution. The transitional authorities have announced plans to hold elections by October 2024.
Chad has faced widespread poverty, an economy severely weakened by volatile international oil prices, terrorist-led insurgencies in the Lake Chad Basin, and several waves of rebellions in northern and eastern Chad. In 2015, the government imposed a state of emergency in the Lake Chad Basin following multiple attacks by the terrorist group Boko Haram, now known as ISIS-West Africa. The same year, Boko Haram conducted bombings in N'Djamena. In 2019, the Chadian government also declared a state of emergency in the Sila and Ouaddai regions bordering Sudan and in the Tibesti region bordering Niger, where rival ethnic groups are still fighting. The army has suffered heavy losses to Islamic terror groups in the Lake Chad Basin.
" } }, "Geography": { "Location": { "text": "Central Africa, south of Libya" }, "Geographic coordinates": { "text": "15 00 N, 19 00 E" }, "Map references": { "text": "Africa" }, "Area": { "total": { "text": "1.284 million sq km" }, "land": { "text": "1,259,200 sq km" }, "water": { "text": "24,800 sq km" } }, "Area - comparative": { "text": "almost nine times the size of New York state; slightly more than three times the size of California" }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { "text": "6,406 km" }, "border countries": { "text": "Cameroon 1,116 km; Central African Republic 1,556 km; Libya 1,050 km; Niger 1,196 km; Nigeria 85 km; Sudan 1,403 km" } }, "Coastline": { "text": "0 km (landlocked)" }, "Maritime claims": { "text": "none (landlocked)" }, "Climate": { "text": "tropical in south, desert in north" }, "Terrain": { "text": "broad, arid plains in center, desert in north, mountains in northwest, lowlands in south" }, "Elevation": { "highest point": { "text": "Emi Koussi 3,445 m" }, "lowest point": { "text": "Djourab 160 m" }, "mean elevation": { "text": "543 m" } }, "Natural resources": { "text": "petroleum, uranium, natron, kaolin, fish (Lake Chad), gold, limestone, sand and gravel, salt" }, "Land use": { "agricultural land": { "text": "39.6% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: arable land": { "text": "arable land: 3.9% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent crops": { "text": "permanent crops: 0% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent pasture": { "text": "permanent pasture: 35.7% (2018 est.)" }, "forest": { "text": "9.1% (2018 est.)" }, "other": { "text": "51.3% (2018 est.)" } }, "Irrigated land": { "text": "300 sq km (2012)" }, "Major lakes (area sq km)": { "fresh water lake(s)": { "text": "Lake Chad (endorheic lake shared with Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroon) - 10,360-25,900 sq kmnote 1: Chad is the largest of Africa's 16 landlocked countries
note 2: not long ago - geologically speaking - what is today the Sahara was green savannah teeming with wildlife; during the African Humid Period, roughly 11,000 to 5,000 years ago, a vibrant animal community, including elephants, giraffes, hippos, and antelope lived there; the last remnant of the \"Green Sahara\" exists in the Lakes of Ounianga (oo-nee-ahn-ga) in northern Chad, a series of 18 interconnected freshwater, saline, and hypersaline lakes now protected as a World Heritage site
note 3: Lake Chad, the most significant water body in the Sahel, is a remnant of a former inland sea, paleolake Mega-Chad; at its greatest extent, sometime before 5000 B.C., Lake Mega-Chad was the largest of four Saharan paleolakes that existed during the African Humid Period; it covered an area of about 400,000 sq km (150,000 sq mi), roughly the size of today's Caspian Sea
" } }, "People and Society": { "Population": { "text": "18,523,165 (2023 est.)" }, "Nationality": { "noun": { "text": "Chadian(s)" }, "adjective": { "text": "Chadian" } }, "Ethnic groups": { "text": "Sara (Ngambaye/Sara/Madjingaye/Mbaye) 30.5%, Kanembu/Bornu/Buduma 9.8%, Arab 9.7%, Wadai/Maba/Masalit/Mimi 7%, Gorane 5.8%, Masa/Musseye/Musgum 4.9%, Bulala/Medogo/Kuka 3.7%, Marba/Lele/Mesme 3.5%, Mundang 2.7%, Bidiyo/Migaama/Kenga/Dangleat 2.5%, Dadjo/Kibet/Muro 2.4%, Tupuri/Kera 2%, Gabri/Kabalaye/Nanchere/Somrai 2%, Fulani/Fulbe/Bodore 1.8%, Karo/Zime/Peve 1.3%, Baguirmi/Barma 1.2%, Zaghawa/Bideyat/Kobe 1.1%, Tama/Assongori/Mararit 1.1%, Mesmedje/Massalat/Kadjakse 0.8%, other Chadian ethnicities 3.4%, Chadians of foreign ethnicities 0.9%, foreign nationals 0.3%, unspecified 1.7% (2014-15 est.)" }, "Languages": { "Languages": { "text": "French (official), Arabic (official), Sara (in south), more than 120 different languages and dialects" }, "major-language sample(s)": { "text": "Despite the start of oil production in 2003, around 40% of Chad’s population lived below the poverty line as of 2018. The population will continue to grow rapidly because of the country’s very high fertility rate and large youth cohort – more than 65% of the populace is under the age of 25 as of 2022 – although the mortality rate is high and life expectancy is low. Chad has the world’s second highest maternal mortality rate as of 2017. Among the primary risk factors are poverty, anemia, rural habitation, high fertility, poor education, and a lack of access to family planning and obstetric care. Impoverished, uneducated adolescents living in rural areas are most affected. To improve women’s reproductive health and reduce fertility, Chad will need to increase women’s educational attainment, job participation, and knowledge of and access to family planning. Less than a quarter of women are literate, less than 10% use contraceptives, and more than 40% undergo genital cutting.
As of December 2022, more than 403,000 refugees from Sudan and more than 120,000 from the Central African Republic strain Chad’s limited resources and create tensions in host communities. Thousands of new refugees fled to Chad in 2013 to escape worsening violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. The large refugee populations are hesitant to return to their home countries because of continued instability. Chad was relatively stable in 2012 in comparison to other states in the region, but past fighting between government forces and opposition groups and inter-communal violence have left more than 380,000 of its citizens displaced in the eastern part of the country as of 2022.
" }, "Age structure": { "0-14 years": { "text": "46.24% (male 4,334,264/female 4,231,658)" }, "15-64 years": { "text": "51.27% (male 4,646,510/female 4,849,878)" }, "65 years and over": { "text": "2.49% (2023 est.) (male 197,450/female 263,405)" } }, "Dependency ratios": { "total dependency ratio": { "text": "98.7" }, "youth dependency ratio": { "text": "94.7" }, "elderly dependency ratio": { "text": "4" }, "potential support ratio": { "text": "24.9 (2021 est.)" } }, "Median age": { "total": { "text": "16.5 years (2023 est.)" }, "male": { "text": "16.1 years" }, "female": { "text": "17 years" } }, "Population growth rate": { "text": "3.05% (2023 est.)" }, "Birth rate": { "text": "39.9 births/1,000 population (2023 est.)" }, "Death rate": { "text": "9.2 deaths/1,000 population (2023 est.)" }, "Net migration rate": { "text": "-0.1 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2023 est.)" }, "Population distribution": { "text": "the population is unevenly distributed due to contrasts in climate and physical geography; the highest density is found in the southwest, particularly around Lake Chad and points south; the dry Saharan zone to the north is the least densely populated as shown in this population distribution map" }, "Urbanization": { "urban population": { "text": "24.4% of total population (2023)" }, "rate of urbanization": { "text": "4.1% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)" } }, "Major urban areas - population": { "text": "1.592 million N'DJAMENA (capital) (2023)" }, "Sex ratio": { "at birth": { "text": "1.04 male(s)/female" }, "0-14 years": { "text": "1.02 male(s)/female" }, "15-64 years": { "text": "0.96 male(s)/female" }, "65 years and over": { "text": "0.75 male(s)/female" }, "total population": { "text": "0.98 male(s)/female (2023 est.)" } }, "Mother's mean age at first birth": { "text": "18.1 years (2014/15 est.)", "note": "note: data represents median age at first birth among women 20-49" }, "Maternal mortality ratio": { "text": "1,063 deaths/100,000 live births (2020 est.)" }, "Infant mortality rate": { "total": { "text": "64 deaths/1,000 live births (2023 est.)" }, "male": { "text": "69.6 deaths/1,000 live births" }, "female": { "text": "58.1 deaths/1,000 live births" } }, "Life expectancy at birth": { "total population": { "text": "59.6 years (2023 est.)" }, "male": { "text": "57.7 years" }, "female": { "text": "61.5 years" } }, "Total fertility rate": { "text": "5.35 children born/woman (2023 est.)" }, "Gross reproduction rate": { "text": "2.62 (2023 est.)" }, "Contraceptive prevalence rate": { "text": "8.1% (2019)" }, "Drinking water source": { "improved: urban": { "text": "urban: 90.2% of population" }, "improved: rural": { "text": "rural: 51.9% of population" }, "improved: total": { "text": "total: 60.9% of population" }, "unimproved: urban": { "text": "urban: 9.8% of population" }, "unimproved: rural": { "text": "rural: 48.1% of population" }, "unimproved: total": { "text": "total: 39.1% of population (2020 est.)" } }, "Current health expenditure": { "text": "5.4% of GDP (2020)" }, "Physicians density": { "text": "0.06 physicians/1,000 population (2020)" }, "Sanitation facility access": { "improved: urban": { "text": "urban: 57.5% of population" }, "improved: rural": { "text": "rural: 4.9% of population" }, "improved: total": { "text": "total: 17.3% of population" }, "unimproved: urban": { "text": "urban: 42.5% of population" }, "unimproved: rural": { "text": "rural: 95.1% of population" }, "unimproved: total": { "text": "total: 82.7% of population (2020 est.)" } }, "Major infectious diseases": { "degree of risk": { "text": "very high (2023)" }, "food or waterborne diseases": { "text": "bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever" }, "vectorborne diseases": { "text": "malaria, dengue fever, and sexually transmitted diseases: hepatitis B (2024)" }, "water contact diseases": { "text": "schistosomiasis" }, "animal contact diseases": { "text": "rabies" }, "respiratory diseases": { "text": "meningococcal meningitis" }, "note": "note: on 31 August 2023, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Chad is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine" }, "Obesity - adult prevalence rate": { "text": "6.1% (2016)" }, "Alcohol consumption per capita": { "total": { "text": "0.55 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)" }, "beer": { "text": "0.37 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)" }, "wine": { "text": "0.01 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)" }, "spirits": { "text": "0.01 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)" }, "other alcohols": { "text": "0.16 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)" } }, "Tobacco use": { "total": { "text": "8.3% (2020 est.)" }, "male": { "text": "13.8% (2020 est.)" }, "female": { "text": "2.7% (2020 est.)" } }, "Children under the age of 5 years underweight": { "text": "18.9% (2022)" }, "Currently married women (ages 15-49)": { "text": "70.6% (2023 est.)" }, "Child marriage": { "women married by age 15": { "text": "24.2%" }, "women married by age 18": { "text": "60.6%" }, "men married by age 18": { "text": "8.1% (2019 est.)" } }, "Education expenditures": { "text": "2.9% of GDP (2021 est.)" }, "Literacy": { "definition": { "text": "age 15 and over can read and write French or Arabic" }, "total population": { "text": "26.8%" }, "male": { "text": "35.4%" }, "female": { "text": "18.2% (2021)" } }, "School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)": { "total": { "text": "7 years" }, "male": { "text": "9 years" }, "female": { "text": "6 years (2015)" } } }, "Environment": { "Environment - current issues": { "text": "inadequate supplies of potable water; improper waste disposal in rural areas and poor farming practices contribute to soil and water pollution; desertification" }, "Environment - international agreements": { "party to": { "text": "Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands" }, "signed, but not ratified": { "text": "Marine Dumping-London Convention" } }, "Climate": { "text": "tropical in south, desert in north" }, "Land use": { "agricultural land": { "text": "39.6% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: arable land": { "text": "arable land: 3.9% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent crops": { "text": "permanent crops: 0% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent pasture": { "text": "permanent pasture: 35.7% (2018 est.)" }, "forest": { "text": "9.1% (2018 est.)" }, "other": { "text": "51.3% (2018 est.)" } }, "Urbanization": { "urban population": { "text": "24.4% of total population (2023)" }, "rate of urbanization": { "text": "4.1% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)" } }, "Food insecurity": { "widespread lack of access": { "text": "due to civil insecurity and high food prices - according to the latest analysis, about 1.86 million people are projected to experience acute food insecurity during the June to August 2023 lean season period; this would be an improvement compared to the previous year, mostly due to the higher year-on-year cereal output in 2022 after the below average 2021 production; acute food insecurity is underpinned by persisting insecurity in the Lac and Tibesti regions, which had displaced over 380 000 people by April 2023; furthermore, elevated food prices due to high fuel costs and localized crop losses during the 2022 floods are aggravating food insecurity (2023)" } }, "Revenue from forest resources": { "text": "3.81% of GDP (2018 est.)" }, "Revenue from coal": { "text": "0% of GDP (2018 est.)" }, "Air pollutants": { "particulate matter emissions": { "text": "41.15 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)" }, "carbon dioxide emissions": { "text": "1.02 megatons (2016 est.)" }, "methane emissions": { "text": "30.69 megatons (2020 est.)" } }, "Waste and recycling": { "municipal solid waste generated annually": { "text": "1,358,851 tons (2010 est.)" } }, "Major lakes (area sq km)": { "fresh water lake(s)": { "text": "Lake Chad (endorheic lake shared with Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroon) - 10,360-25,900 sq km