Forgotten World (86): Chad
A major theme of NightHawk is that we live in a wide and varied world and we should know more about other countries and other cultures and learn to respect them. Therefore, on 17 occasions now, I’ve had a week-long feature devoted to parts of the world that tend to be under-reported or even forgotten. You can check out the previous 85 entries here. This week, I am going to run an 18th series of postings on this theme.
Chad is Africa’s fifth-largest nation, a land-locked, largely semi-desert country which gained its independence from France in 1960 and today has a population of 9M. Post-independence history has been marked by instability and violence stemming mostly from tension between the mainly Arab-Muslim north and the predominantly Christian and animist south. President Deby, in power since 1990, faces an armed rebellion by several groups and incursions from neighbouring Sudan.
Chad suffers from inadequate infrastructure and internal conflict. Poverty is rife, and health and social conditions compare unfavourably with those elsewhere in the region. It is classed as one of the most corrupt nation’s in the world. However, the country is rich in gold and uranium and stands to benefit from its recently-acquired status in 2003 as an oil-exporting state.