Timeline Chad
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North central Africa, north of CAR, west of
Sudan,
south of Libya. The capital is N'Djamena (Ndjamena).
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)(SFC, 11/23/00, p.D5)
7Mil BC-6Mil BC In 2002 scientists
reported a hominid species found in the Djurab desert, Sahel region of
northern Chad that date to this time. They named the group
Sahelanthropus tchadensis (with the nickname Toumaï, “hope of
life” in the Goran language).
(SFC, 7/11/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/11/02, p.B1)
3.5Mil BC-3 Mil BC On Jan 23, 1995, a French team of
paleontologists led by Michel Brunet discovered a lower jaw with 7
teeth and a separate canine of a hominid from this time period. The
discovery was made in a dried lake bed of central Chad and named
Australopithecus bahrelghazalia after the Arab name of a nearby river.
(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A14)
1910 French Equatorial Africa was
a former administrative grouping of four French territories in west
central Africa. It was first formed by the federation of 3 French
imperial colonies: Gabon, Middle Congo, and Ubangi-Shari-Chad. It
comprised a total area of 969,112 square miles (2,500,000 sq km). Chad
was separated from Ubangi-Shari in 1920 to form a fourth colony.
(www.discoverfrance.net)
1920 Chad was separated from
Ubangi-Shari to form a 4th colony of French Equatorial Africa.
(www.discoverfrance.net)
1934 French Equatorial Africa was
transformed into a unified territory of France. In 1946 it was
re-divided into four separate overseas territories.
(www.discoverfrance.net)
1958 Nov 28, Chad, Gabon and
Middle Congo, became autonomous republics within the French community.
The Middle Congo province of French Equatorial Africa voted to proclaim
itself independent as the Congo Republic (Brazzaville).
(AP, 11/28/97)
1960 Aug 11, Chad became
independent from France, but remained within the French community.
Francois Tombalbaye became the 1st president.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1173)
1974 Oil was discovered in Chad.
(WSJ, 6/24/03, p.A9)
1975 Abdelkader Wadal Kamougue, a
southern Chad leader, led a coup.
(SFC, 7/12/96, p.A1)
1982 Jun 7, Hissene Habre (b.1942)
deposed PM Goukouni Oueddei and became dictator of Chad until 1990.
Under Habre the secret police allegedly killed tens of thousands of
people and tortured as many as 200,000. Habre received US support
because he opposed Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy. Habre was deposed on
Dec 1, 1990, by Idriss Deby and fled to Senegal with $11 million.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiss%C3%A8ne_Habr%C3%A9)(WSJ, 5/31/00,
p.A26)
1987 France ousted Libyan troops
from a disputed area of northern Chad. In the proxy war, code-named
Arid Farmer, France and the US backed government forces against Libyan
troops.
(SFC, 6/22/99, p.A12)(WSJ, 2/11/03, p.D8)
1990 Nov, In Chad Idriss
Deby (37), a guerilla chief, seized power in a coup. His Zaghawa tribe
came to dominate the government and was widely opposed by other
Chadians from other regions.
(www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/chad.htm)(Econ,
3/4/06, p.42)
1990 Dec 1, Hissene Habre
(b.1942), dictator of Chad, was deposed by Idriss Deby and fled to
Senegal with $11 million.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiss%C3%A8ne_Habr%C3%A9)(WSJ, 5/31/00,
p.A26)
1991 The French supported
strongman in Chad was removed from office.
(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.A14)
1992 A commission set up in Chad
accused Habre's regime of 40,000 political killings and 200,000 cases
of torture.
(AP, 11/25/05)
1992 Hissene Habre fled to Senegal
from Chad with $11 million in loot.
(WSJ, 5/31/00, p.A26)
1994 Oil in Chad was estimated to
be at least 1 million barrels.
(WSJ, 6/24/03, p.A9)
1995 Laurent Pope, former US
ambassador to Chad, admitted that half of the $300 million in
assistance provided by the US (Agency for Int’l. Development) since
1982 was wasted.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)
1996 Jun 3, In Chad Pres. Idriss
Deby led 15 candidates in the upcoming first multiparty elections.
(WSJ, 8/8/95, p. A1)
1996 Jul 3, Idriss Deby won 70% of
the vote. He defeated Abdelkader Wadal Kamougue, a southern leader who
led coup in 1975. The election was widely seen as flawed.
(SFC, 7/12/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/29/01, p.A1)
1996 The life expectancy for women
in Chad was 40 years.
(SFC, 5/6/96, p.A-4)
1997 Aug, A plague of locusts
began to spread across southwest Chad with as many as 200 locusts per
square yard.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A21)
1998 Aug, Troops from Chad were
sent to support Kabila in the Congo.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A15)
1998 Dec, Chad's parliament passed
into law an agreement for strict auditing of its oil income.
(WSJ, 6/24/03, p.A9)
2000 Jan 25, A complaint was
submitted in Dakar, Senegal, against former Chad dictator Hissene
Habre. It detailed 97 allegations of political killings, 142 cases of
torture and 100 disappearances. Habre was indicted on Feb 3.
(SFC, 1/27/00, p.C2)(SFC, 2/4/00, p.D8)
2000 Feb, A Senegalese court
indicted Hissene Habre, the former autocrat of Chad.
(WSJ, 5/31/00, p.A26)
2000 May, Chad received a $25
million bonus from the oil consortium’s junior partners, Chevron and
Petronas of Malaysia, in the new pipeline deal.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.C20)
2000 Jun 6, The World Bank
approved a $3.7 billion oil well and pipeline project led by Exxon and
Mobile to link oil fields in Chad across 663 miles to the Atlantic
coast of Cameroon.
(SFC, 6/7/00, p.A12)
2000 Oct 18, The World Bank
endorsed a $3.5 billion oil project in Chad with 80% of the revenues to
go to development. 10% was to be invested for future generations. The
pipeline was to go from southern Chad to an Atlantic port in Cameroon.
By 2008 rather than comply with the bank’s strictures, Chad had repaid
its loans in full and spent its oil money as it pleased.
(SFC, 11/23/00, p.D5)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.63)
2000 Nov 23, It was reported that
$4 million of a $25 million bonus payment from the new oil project was
used by the Chad government to buy weapons.
(SFC, 11/23/00, p.D5)(SFC, 12/6/00, p.C20)
2001 Mar 20, Senegal’s highest
court said that it has no authority to prosecute Hissene Habre, Chad’s
former president, on charges of torture.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Apr 12, A trailer truck
carrying some 100 passengers went off the Chagoua Bridge and plunged
into the Chari River near the Chad capital of N’Djamena. Most were
missing and feared dead.
(SFC, 4/14/01, p.A10)
2001 May 20, Chad held elections
and Pres. Deby was later declared the winner. Police had detained 6
opposition candidates and beat dozens of their supporters.
(WSJ, 5/29/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 19, Scientists in Chad
found fossils in the Djurab desert of a human ancestor that they later
dated to 6-7 million years BP. In 2002 they named the group
Sahelanthropus tchadensis (with the nickname Toumaï, “hope of
life” in the Goran language).
(NW, 7/22/02, p.46)
2002 Sep 24, Youssouf Togoimi,
rebel head of the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad and a
former minister in the government of President Idriss Deby, died from
wounds suffered after his vehicle struck a land mine Aug 28. Togoimi
died in a hospital in neighboring Libya where he was flown for
treatment.
(AP, 9/26/02)
2003 Jul 15, Chad began pumping
oil to Cameroon, part of a project to help alleviate crushing poverty
in the two countries. The 4.2 billion project was funded by the World
Bank on the condition that the oil money be used for development. Pres.
Idris Deby later diverted the money to the general budget and for
weapons.
(AP, 7/16/03)(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A31)
2003 Sep, Refugee numbers in Chad
reach 65,000. UN agencies estimate at least 500,000 people in Darfur
need humanitarian aid.
(www.un.org/News/dh/dev/scripts/darfur_formatted.htm)
2003 Oct 3, The first tanker set
off the Cameroon port of Kribi with crude oil from a massive $3.7
billion, 665-mile pipeline from the landlocked nation of Chad.
(AP, 10/6/03)
2003 Dec 14, Chad's government
signed a cease-fire with rebel forces at the end of talks in Burkina
Faso.
(AP, 12/14/03)
2003 Chad’s population was about 8
million.
(SFC, 11/23/00, p.D5)
2004 Jan 26, Sudanese planes
dropped bombs in western Sudan, sending hundreds of people fleeing
across the border into Chad where aid workers scrambled to provide them
food and shelter in the barren desert.
(AP, 1/27/04)
2004 Feb 17, UN agencies began
urgently airlifting relief supplies into eastern Chad and western Sudan
to help more than 600,000 Sudanese lacking food, water and medical
supplies because of fighting.
(AP, 2/17/04)
2004 Mar 9, In Chad 2 days of
fighting broke out as the army battled Islamic militants near a remote
village on the country's western border with Niger, killing 43
"terrorists" of a group suspected of links with al-Qaida. Chad’s
defense minister said hundreds of Arab militiamen from Sudan had raided
a village inside Chad, setting off gun battles with the army that
killed dozens of fighters.
(AP, 3/12/04)(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 Mar 18, A rebel group in Chad
captured Amari Saifi, one of North Africa's most notorious terrorists,
along with 9 others. Saifi is and an Algerian extremist suspected in
the hostage-taking of 32 European tourists last year.
(AP, 5/14/04)
2004 Jun 12, Central African
leaders of Chad and Cameroon officially opened the taps on one of the
largest private investments in sub-Saharan Africa, a 663-mile, $3.7
billion pipeline snaking from Chad through virgin rain forests to the
Atlantic.
(AP, 6/12/04)
2004 Jun 17, A Chad military
official said Arab militias, known as Janjawids, fought Chadian troops
in Birak, a locality inside Chad about 10 miles (six kilometers) from
the border with western Sudan. 69 Janjawids militiamen were killed and
two taken prisoner in the fighting. He did not give figures for any
losses among Chadian troops.
(AP, 6/17/04)
2004 Jul 10, Sudan, under
international pressure to take action to end the humanitarian crisis in
Darfur, agreed with Chad to deploy a joint force along their troubled
border.
(AFP, 7/11/04)
2004 Aug 14, Africa’s worst desert
locust plague in 15 years continued across Chad.
(SFC, 8/14/04, p.C8)
2004 US Special Forces began
training local troops in Mauritania and Mali under a program called the
Pan-Sahel Initiative. The program was renamed the Trans-Sahara
Counter-Terrorism Initiative and taken over by Marines, who extended
the training to Chad and Niger.
(SFC, 10/2/04, p.A8)
2005 Jun, The Trans-Sahara
Counter-Terrorism Initiative began operations. The US funded plan
intended to provide military equipment and development aid to 9
north-east African countries considered fertile ground for Muslim
militant groups. Participating countries included Algeria, Chad, Mali,
Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia.
(SFC, 12/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Sep 19, Belgium issued an
international arrest warrant for Chad's former leader Hissene Habre,
charging him with atrocities during his 1982-90 rule. Habre, who lives
in exile in Senegal, is being pursued under Belgium's "universal
jurisdiction" laws, which allow for prosecutions for crimes against
humanity wherever they were committed.
(AP, 9/29/05)
2005 Oct 18, Transparency
International ranked Bangladesh and Chad as the most corrupt on an
annual list of corruption levels in 159 nations. At the other end of
the scale, Iceland was ranked least corrupt. Turkmenistan, Myanmar,
Haiti, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, the Ivory Coast and Angola joined
Chad and Bangladesh as the most corrupt countries.
(AP, 10/18/05)
2005 Oct, The government of Chad
said it intends to amend a law governing petrodollars so it can use a
larger chunk for any purpose it likes.
(SFC, 12/30/05, p.C2)
2005 Nov 25, Hissene Habre, Chad's
former dictator, was freed after a Senegalese court said it had no
jurisdiction to rule on his extradition to Belgium to stand trial for
war crimes.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Nov 27, Senegal's foreign
minister said the African Union will decide the fate of Chad's former
dictator, wanted in Belgium for trial on human-rights abuses allegedly
committed during his regime.
(AP, 11/28/05)
2005 Dec 8, Paul Wolfowitz, head
of the World Bank, issued a statement to Chad expressing serious
concerns about proposed changes to the use of petrodollars.
(SFC, 12/30/05, p.C2)
2005 Dec 18, Chad blamed its
neighbor Sudan for a rebel raid on an eastern garrison and announced it
was exercising its right to pursue the attackers on Sudanese soil. A
spokesman said an early morning attack on Adre's garrison was mounted
by army deserters allied with a recently formed rebel group called the
Rally for Democracy and Liberty (RDL), which Chad accuses of being a
"militia used by the Sudanese government."
(AP, 12/18/05)
2005 Dec 19, Chad's army said its
forces had killed about 300 rebels after they launched a failed
offensive on a border town in one of the worst attacks in an escalating
conflict. Chad's foreign minister said the troops then chased the
rebels into Sudan and destroyed their bases across the border.
(AP, 12/19/05)
2006 Jan 4, Chad's President
Idriss Deby urged the UN to take control of Sudan's volatile Darfur
region because he said Khartoum was using the conflict there to
destabilize neighboring states.
(Reuters, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 7, The World Bank under
Paul Wolfowitz halted all lending to Chad saying the country broke a
deal to use oil money to cut poverty.
(WSJ, 1/7/06, p.A1)(Econ, 3/4/06, p.69)
2006 Feb 8, In Libya the leaders
of Sudan and Chad signed a peace agreement to end increasing tension
over Sudan's Darfur region, pledging to normalize diplomatic relations
and deny refuge to each other's rebel groups. A communique issued by
Sudan, Chad and Libya, as well as Burkino Faso, Congo and the Central
African Republic, whose leaders attended the talks, said a committee of
African countries overseen by Libya would monitor the implementation of
the deal.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 13, Joey Cheek (26),
American speedskater, won a gold medal in the 500-meter sprint in
Turin, Italy, and announced that he would donate his $25,000 award from
the US Olympic Committee to a refugee program in Chad.
(SFC, 2/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 12-2006 Apr 13, Sudanese
Janjaweed militia with local Chadian recruits shot or hacked to death
118 villagers in eastern Chad in a bloody spillover of violence from
Sudan's Darfur region.
(Reuters, 5/25/06)
2006 Apr 13, In Chad government
troops using tanks and attack helicopters repelled a rebel assault on
N’Djamena, Chad's capital. At least 100 rebels were killed. President
Deby went on state-run radio to assure residents he remained in
control, and he blamed Sudan, whose Darfur crisis has spilled over into
his country.
(AP, 4/13/06)(Econ, 4/22/06, p.50)
2006 Apr 14, Chad broke off
diplomatic relations with Sudan and threatened to expel 200,000
Sudanese refugees, blaming its neighbor for a rebel attack that killed
350 in the capital.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 15, Chad threatened to
cut off its flow of oil unless the World Bank releases $125 million
frozen in a dispute over how the central African country should spend
its oil revenues.
(AP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 16, Chad's Pres. Deby
promised the UN that refugees from Sudan's Darfur region will not be
forcibly returned.
(AP, 4/17/06)
2006 May 3, Chadians voted for
president despite no real alternatives to incumbent Idriss Deby, who
rebuffed calls to delay the election in this emerging African oil
exporter in favor of peace talks with rebels.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 Jun 11, A military transport
plane crashed as it tried to land at an unlit airport at night in
Chad's main eastern city, killing five people. Chad rebels claimed that
they shot the C-130 military plane down at Abeche airport.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 16, A joint UN and
African Union delegation met Chadian President Idriss Deby to discuss
the possible deployment of UN troops in Sudan's war-ravaged western
Darfur region.
(AFP, 6/16/06)
2006 Jun 20, Chad accused Sudan of
cross-border attacks and urged the Security Council to meet over its
neighbor's alleged "aggression and destabilization."
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006 Jun 26, An attack on an army
camp in the Central African Republic (CAR) resulted in 33 deaths. The
provisional toll included 11 CAR soldiers, two Chadian soldiers from
the multinational force FOMUC and 20 attackers.
(AFP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jul 2, Senegal's President
Abdoulaye Wade said his country would try Chad's former leader Hissene
Habre, wanted by Belgium for trial on charges of war crimes and crimes
against humanity.
(AFP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 14, The World Bank said
it and Chad had resolved a dispute over oil revenues that will result
in significant increases in government spending on projects that
benefit the poor.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Aug 6, Taiwan condemned China
after oil producer Chad switched diplomatic ties to Beijing from
Taipei, forcing Premier Su Tseng-chang to scrap his plans to visit the
African nation at the last minute.
(Reuters, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 8, Chad and Sudan agreed
to reopen their borders and resume diplomatic relations that they
severed in a dispute four months ago.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 26, Chad ordered US
energy giant Chevron and Malaysia's Petronas to leave the country
within 24 hours for failing to honor tax obligations, a move apparently
aimed at increasing control over its oil output. Chad's president
Idriss Deby suspended the oil minister and two other Cabinet members
who negotiated deals with the two foreign oil firms.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 30, Conservationists said
the remains of 100 African elephants killed for their tusks have been
found in Chad not far from Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Sep 1, In Chad US Senator
Barack Obama held talks with President Idriss Deby Itno on the crisis
in Sudan's Darfur region and on Chad's oil production, on the final
stop of the African-American politician's tour of the continent.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 7, Chad Pres. Idriss Deby
and Chevron CEO David O’Reilly met in Paris for talks on oil taxes.
Chad said Chevron agreed to pay back taxes.
(SFC, 9/9/06, p.C1)
2006 Oct 7, Sudanese soldiers
crossed the border into eastern Chad to fight a group of Darfur rebels,
leaving more than 300 people injured.
(AP, 10/8/06)
2006 Oct 18, Local and UN
officials said Sudanese Janjaweed militia and Chadian rebels have
attacked at least 10 villages in south-east Chad in the past fortnight,
killing over 100 people and displacing more than 3,000.
(Reuters, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 23, In southeastern Chad
armed men attacked Am Timan, 24 hours after briefly seizing the town of
Goz Beida near the Sudan border. The insurgents, calling themselves the
Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD), the latest in a
string of titles grouping various rebel factions, have said they want
polls to end the "catastrophic" rule of President Idriss Deby.
(Reuters, 10/24/06)
2006 Oct 27, The UN said it is
sending a mission to Chad and the Central African Republic to look at
operations to curb the escalating violence and help protect hundreds of
thousands of civilians.
(AP, 10/28/06)
2006 Oct 28, Chad accused Sudan's
air force of bombarding four towns along its eastern frontier and said
its armed forces were ready to repel further aggression.
(Reuters, 10/28/06)
2006 Oct 31, A small clash between
ethnic Arab and ethnic African villagers along Chad's border with
Darfur escalated into a large-scale attack in which Arabs killed 128
Africans. The fight broke out in Amtiman in southeastern Chad between
two small groups after a member of one group insulted the other.
(AP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 2, Senegal moved closer
to bringing Hissene Habre, a former Chadian dictator accused of war
crimes, to justice after the government announced that local laws would
be revised and a special commission formed to organize and oversee his
trial.
(AP, 11/3/06)
2006 Nov 13, Chad declared a state
of emergency in three eastern regions where ethnic clashes have left as
many as 200 people dead and raised fears that Sudan's Darfur conflict
is spilling across the border.
(AP, 11/14/06)
2006 Nov 18, Gabonese President
Omar Bongo said in a statement that the Central African Economic and
Monetary Community (CEMAC) had "acceded to a request from the Central
African Republic authorities to intervene in securing conflict zones."
CEMAC's members include the Central African Republic, Chad, Gabon,
Congo, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
(AFP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 24, Chadian rebels rolled
into the east of the country in their second offensive within a month
against President Idriss Deby Itno. Chad extended a state of emergency
for six months in the country's eastern provinces, where ethnic clashes
have killed as many as 400 people and raised fears that Sudan's Darfur
conflict is spilling across the border.
(AP, 11/24/06)
2006 Nov 25, In eastern Chad
fighting broke out between the national army and rebels, and rebels
claimed they had seized the major city in the area.
(AP, 11/25/06)
2006 Nov 26, In eastern Chad
government forces entered Abeche, one day after rebels launched an
attack and claimed to have seized the town.
(AP, 11/26/06)
2006 Nov 28, A Chadian military
reconnaissance plane was shot down in eastern Chad in an attack likely
carried out by rebels.
(AP, 11/28/06)
2006 Dec 1, Amnesty International
accused the government of Chad of failing to act as Janjaweed militia
carry out increasing attacks on civilians.
(AFP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 6, In Chad an association
of radio broadcasters said private radio stations began a three-day
protest of government censorship of their reporting on Chad's volatile
east.
(AP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 17, In eastern Chad
marauding fighters killed and mutilated 20 civilians. The
government blamed the atrocities on militias backed by neighbouring
Sudan. Government forces who battled the attackers after their raids on
the refugee camp and two other nearby villages also saw eight of their
soldiers killed and the victims' eyes gouged out. The army killed nine
fighters in return and took four prisoners.
(AFP, 12/19/06)
2006 Dec 24, Chad's president and
the leader of a rebel faction that tried to oust him earlier this year
signed a peace accord in Libya, but other Chadian insurgents dismissed
the deal and vowed to fight on.
(Reuters, 12/24/06)
2006 Dec 25, Chad's President
Idriss Deby Itno and rebel leader Mahamat Nour Abdulkerim arrived in
N'Djamena after signing a peace deal in Libya. One of the current rebel
leaders, Timane Erdimi, dismissed the significance of the deal with
Nour's FUC, some of whose men went off to join a coalition led by the
Rally of Democratic Forces (RAFD) headed by Erdimi and his twin brother
Tom. Deby's government is also up against the Union of Forces for
Democracy and Development (UFDD), led by former defense minister
Mahamat Nouri, and the Chadian National Concord movement led by Hassan
Saleh al-Djinedi.
(AFP, 12/25/06)
2006 France used Chad’s airspace
to train fighter pilots and maintained a military presence in the
eastern part of the country.
(Econ, 11/11/06, p.54)
2007 Jan 15, Anti-government
rebels in Chad said they have captured a new location in the far north
of the central African country after ending a truce at the weekend.
Chadian defense minister, General Bichara Issa Djadallah, denied the
rebel claim.
(AFP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 17, Chadian rebels
captured the small town of Ade on the border with Sudan, the latest in
a series of raids in the lawless east of the central African country.
(AP, 1/17/07)
2007 Jan 24, A hijacker seized a
Sudanese passenger plane carrying 103 people and forced the pilot to
fly to the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, where he surrendered. The gunman
wanted the plane to be flown to Britain but when told there was
insufficient fuel agreed to go to the capital of neighbouring Chad. He
said he wanted to draw attention to the Darfur conflict.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2007 Feb 1, Chadian rebels
fighting to overthrow President Idriss Deby attacked the eastern border
town of Adre on the main road route into Sudan's Darfur region.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 15, A summit of African
leaders opened in Cannes on the French Riviera. The crisis in Darfur
and violence in Guinea overshadowed the summit, as well as perennial
issues of poverty, development and AIDS. France won agreement from
three involved African nations (Sudan, Chad and Central African
Republic) that they would not support armed rebel movements on each
other's territories.
(AP, 2/15/07)(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 21, At a regional meeting
in Libya the leaders of Sudan and Chad said they agreed to redouble
efforts to end violence spilling over their border from Darfur.
(Reuters, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 23, Chadian PM Pascal
Yoadimnadji (56) died at a Paris hospital following a brain hemorrhage.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 28, Djidda Moussa Outman,
Chad's minister of foreign affairs, said that Chad had never accepted
the idea of a military force of "whatever nature" on its eastern border.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Mar 4, Chad named the former
rebel leader Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim as its new defense minister in a
major reshuffle of the volatile central African country's government.
(AFP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 6, The government of Chad
refused to allow the UN to send an advance mission to prepare for the
possible deployment of UN peacekeepers, a setback to plans to help
thousands of civilians caught in the spillover of the Darfur conflict
in neighboring Sudan.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2007 Mar 31, Janjaweed militiamen
killed up to 400 people in the volatile eastern border region near
Sudan, leaving an "apocalyptic" scene of mass graves and destruction.
Chadian officials initially said 65 people had died, but added that the
toll was sure to rise.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Apr 10, South African
President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Khartoum to join the international
push for UN peacekeepers in Darfur, amid fears of a regional spillover
after clashes between Sudan and Chad. Officials said the UN, the
African Union and the Sudanese government have reached agreement to
beef up the African force in Sudan's violence-wracked Darfur region
with UN troops, police and equipment.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Apr 26, Six central African
countries (Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Central African Republic,
Cameroon and Congo) plan to launch a common passport in July,
permitting the free movement of goods and people across their borders.
(AFP, 4/26/07)
2007 May 3, African neighbors
Sudan and Chad signed a Saudi-brokered reconciliation deal in Saudi
Arabia, requiring both sides to cooperate with the United Nations to
stabilize Darfur and the adjacent region in Chad.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 4, A rebel spokesman said
a Saudi-brokered reconciliation deal signed by Chad with its neighbor
Sudan will not halt a guerrilla war by Chadian rebels aimed at toppling
President Idriss Deby.
(Reuters, 5/4/07)
2007 May 9, Chad pledged to work
to demobilize hundreds of child soldiers fighting in the ranks of the
government army and rebel groups across the conflict-torn central
African country.
(Reuters, 5/9/07)
2007 Jun 3, In Libya African
leaders sought to reconcile differences between neighbors Chad and
Sudan over Darfur and boost Somalia's embattled transitional government
at a regional summit.
(AFP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jul 2, Brahim Deby (27), the
son of Chad's president, was found dead with a head wound in the
basement of his apartment building in a Paris suburb. Authorities
treated the case as a murder investigation.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 23, The European Union
took the first step towards sending forces to Chad and the Central
African Republican to help the United Nations protect refugees trapped
in the violent region bordering Darfur.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The government of
Chad said it will adhere to a program designed to put pressure on
countries to be open about revenues from exports of oil, natural gas
and minerals.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Sep 7, UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon arrived in Chad for talks with President Idriss Deby Itno
on the Darfur crisis in neighbouring Sudan, and the plight of refugees
who have fled to his country.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 25, The UN Security
Council unanimously passed a French resolution endorsing sending a
European Union-UN force to Chad and the Central African Republic to
protect civilians reeling from a spillover of the Darfur conflict.
(AP, 9/25/07)
2007 Oct 15, European Union
foreign ministers gave their final approval to deploy a 3,000-strong EU
peacekeeping force for one year to help refugees and displaced people
living along Darfur's borders with Chad and the Central African
Republic.
{EU, Sudan, Chad, CAR}
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 16,
Chad's government declared a state of emergency along its eastern
border with Sudan's Darfur and in its remote desert north to tackle a
fresh flare-up of ethnic violence that killed at least 20 people.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 25, In Chad 9 French
citizens were arrested after a group tried to fly 103 African children
to France, saying it wanted to save them from the crisis in neighboring
Darfur. On Oct 29 six French nationals were charged with kidnapping and
a judge in the eastern city of Abeche also agreed to allow prosecution
charges of complicity against three French journalists.
(AP, 10/26/07)(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 28, Authorities in Chad
charged six French charity workers with kidnapping after they tried to
put 103 children on a plane to France, claiming they were orphans from
Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region. The charity workers were later
convicted, jailed for several months, then pardoned.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2007 Nov 4, In Chad 3 French
journalists and 4 Spanish flight attendants, among 17 detained for over
a week in an alleged attempt to kidnap 103 African children, were
released. French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Chad on a visit
to discuss the fate of Europeans facing charges for trying to fly 103
African children to Europe.
(AP, 11/4/07)(Reuters, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 9, A Belgian pilot and
three Spanish flight crew were set free by authorities in Chad who had
accused them of complicity in a plot to kidnap 103 children and take
them to France for adoption.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 26, In eastern Chad
rebels and government soldiers fought gunbattles near the border with
Sudan's Darfur region after two rebel groups ended a month-long
ceasefire. A rebel group, Union of Forces for Development and
Democracy, claimed to have killed over 200 government soldiers with 20
of its fighters lost.
(Reuters, 11/26/07)(AP, 11/27/07)(SFC, 11/27/07,
p.A17)
2007 Nov 29, In eastern Chad new
fighting erupted near the border with Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region
between the army and a leading rebel group.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 30, In Chad
anti-government rebels declared a "state of war" against French and
foreign military forces in an apparent warning to an EU peacekeeping
force that plans to deploy soon in eastern Chad.
(Reuters, 11/30/07)
2007 Dec 4, The Chadian army
fought heavy battles against rebel forces in the east of the country
near the border with Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
(AFP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 7, Six French nationals
detained in Chad on suspicion of trying to illegally fly 103 children
to Europe started a hunger strike, complaining their case was being
neglected.
(Reuters, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 26, A Chadian court
convicted six French aid workers of trying to kidnap 103 African
children and sentenced them to eight years of forced labor. The French
Foreign Ministry in Paris said it would ask Chadian authorities to
transfer the six convicted to France. The countries have a bilateral
judicial agreement that could allow for such a transfer.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 28, In Chad 6 French aid
workers sentenced to eight years' forced labor for trying to kidnap 103
children left for France, boarding a plane in handcuffs as security
officers looked on.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 29, Sudan accused Chadian
aircraft of bombing its western Darfur region in what it called
"repeated aggressions" by its western neighbor. a Sudanese foreign
ministry statement said 3 Chadian war planes bombed two areas in West
Darfur on December 28.
(AFP, 12/30/07)
2008 Jan 7, Chadian air force
planes attacked a Chadian rebel base across the border, southwest of
El-Geneina in the Darfur region of Sudan.
(AP, 1/7/08)
2008 Jan 11, Belgium, France and
Poland pledged to provide the resources needed to launch a European
Union peacekeeping force for Chad and the Central African Republic.
(AP, 1/11/08)
2008 Jan 28, The EU launched its
long-awaited peacekeeping force for Chad and the Central African
Republic to help protect hundreds of thousands of refugees from
strife-torn Darfur.
(AFP, 1/28/08)
2008 Jan 28, A French court
sentenced six French charity workers to 8 years in prison, after they
were convicted in Chad of trying to kidnap 103 children they said were
orphans from Darfur.
(AP, 1/28/08)
2008 Feb 1, Chad's army fought to
drive off rebels who pushed to within 100 km (60 miles) of the capital
N'Djamena and the clashes delayed the deployment of European
peacekeepers. A French Defense Ministry official said France has sent
about 150 supplementary troops to Chad as a "precautionary measure" in
response to a rebel offensive.
(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Feb 1, In Ethiopia a summit
of African Union leaders shifted its attention from the crisis in Kenya
to Chad, with delegates voicing fears of a major conflict that could
scupper peace efforts in Sudan.
(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Feb 2, African Union leaders
condemned the latest unrest in Chad and Kenya at the close of a summit
overshadowed by new crises on the continent and which saw little
headway achieved on older ones. Hundreds of rebels penetrated the
capital of Chad, clashing with government troops and moving on the
presidential palace after a three-day advance through the oil-producing
central African nation.
(AFP, 2/2/08)(AP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 3, Chadian forces backed
by tanks and helicopter gunships struggled to repel a rebel assault on
the capital, and insurgents claimed to have trapped the president in
his palace. Chadian rebels, reportedly backed by Sudanese military
aircraft, launched an attack on the eastern town of Adre, which borders
on Sudan's Darfur region.
(AP, 2/3/08)(AFP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 4, In Chad government
forces and rebels clashed for a third day in the capital of N'Djamena
with gunfire and shelling heard throughout the city.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 7, Chadian President
Idriss Deby Itno issued a "solemn call" for a European peacekeeping
force for Darfur refugees, to deploy as soon as possible. The president
also said he was "ready to pardon" six French aid workers convicted in
December of trying to kidnap more than 100 children they said were
orphans from Darfur.
(AP, 2/7/08)(AFP, 2/7/08)
2008 Feb 10, The UN refugee agency
said up to 12,000 "terrified" refugees from Sudan's Darfur region have
fled across the border to neighboring Chad after the latest air strikes
by the Sudanese military and thousands more may be on their way.
(AP, 2/10/08)
2008 Feb 11, Chad's PM Nouradin
Koumakoye demanded that the international community remove refugees who
have fled to Chad from Sudan's Darfur region.
(AP, 2/11/08)
2008 Feb 14, Chad's Pres. Idriss
Deby declared a state of emergency and signed a decree increasing
government powers for 15 days.
(SFC, 2/15/08, p.A12)
2008 Feb 29, The UN refugee agency
said that 3,000 refugees from Darfur have arrived in Chad in the last
week, bringing the total number to over 13,000 in February alone.
(AFP, 2/29/08)
2008 Mar 4, France pinned the
blame on Sudanese forces for a shooting near the border with Chad that
left one French soldier wounded and another missing and asked Sudanese
authorities for help in locating the missing soldier. Sgt. Gilles
Pollin’s remains were formally identified Mar 7 and flown to Paris from
Khartoum.
(AP, 3/4/08)(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 13, Chad accused Sudan of
sending anti-government rebels across their border into its territory
as international mediators struggled to broker a fresh peace accord
between the two neighbors. The presidents of Chad and Sudan signed a
non-aggression pact, vowing not to support rebel attacks against each
other, many of which were launched from troubled Darfur.
(AP, 3/13/08)(AFP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 17, An EU force of 3,700
troops still deploying in Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR)
announced the official start of its year-long mission to protect
refugees and displaced people. The EU force in Chad was known as EUFOR,
and the UN Mission there and the CAR was called MINURCAT.
(AFP, 3/17/08)(Econ, 5/31/08, p.52)
2008 Mar 31, Chad's state radio
announced that the president has pardoned six French aid workers
convicted of kidnapping 103 children.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Apr 2, Chad's main rebel
group urged former colonial ruler France to stop backing President
Idriss Deby Itno and cease flying over rebel positions in the central
African nation's restive east.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 May 1, Pascal Marlinge, the
country head of Save the Children UK in Chad, was shot dead by gunmen
who held up his three-car convoy between the villages of Forchana and
Hadjer Hadid, not far from the border with Sudan's Darfur region. UN
aid agencies suspended all but their most urgent work in eastern Chad
for two days in a "symbolic protest."
(Reuters, 5/2/08)
2008 May 10, Sudanese soldiers
clashed with Darfur rebels of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)
in the north of the capital Khartoum where a curfew has now been
imposed. Officials later said more that 200 people were killed in the
weekend fighting. The rebels had traveled from Chad in 191 land
cruisers and pick-up trucks. On May 27 an official Egyptian newspaper
claimed that Sudanese forces searching the rebel JEM movement found
modern Iranian weapons with them and that authorities had seized large
amounts of ammunition and Iranian equipment.
(AFP, 5/10/08)(AP, 5/13/08)(Econ, 5/17/08,
p.59)(AFP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 11, Sudan severed
diplomatic ties with Chad, accusing its neighbor of backing a first
ever Darfur rebel assault on Khartoum, and partly lifted a curfew amid
its clampdown on remaining rebels.
(AFP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 12, Chad closed its
border with Sudan and put a halt to bilateral trade, a minister said, a
day after Sudan severed diplomatic ties with Chad.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 Jun 14, Rebels in Chad
attacked the eastern town of Goz-Beida, and Irish EU troops took up
defensive positions between the fighting and a refugee camp.
(Reuters, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun 18, A military official
said Chad’s army has killed 161 rebels in a battle in the eastern part
of the country.
(SFC, 6/19/08, p.A17)
2008 Jun 30, Brahim Deby, the
eldest son of Chad’s President Idriss Deby, was found dead in the
basement of his apartment building in a Paris suburb. He was
asphyxiated by chemicals from a fire extinguisher that lay near his
body. In late November Romanian police arrested a French-Romanian
national identified as Marius C. after on a warrant from France.
(AP,
11/28/08)(www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L02560147.htm)
2008 Jul 18, Senegal’s President
Abdoulaye Wade said Sudan President Omar al-Beshir has agreed to
restore relations with Chad, more than two months after Khartoum
severed ties accusing Ndjamena of backing Darfur rebels.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Aug 15, In Chad a court
sentenced former President Hissene Habre and 11 rebels to death. Habre
was awaiting trial in Senegal for torture and murder.
(SFC, 8/16/08, p.A5)
2008 Nov 9, Troubled neighbors
Chad and Sudan exchanged ambassadors, six months after diplomatic ties
were ruptured over tit-for-tat accusations of support for armed rebels.
(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Chad’s population was about
10 million.
(SFC, 11/23/00, p.D5)
2009 Jan 14, The UN Security
Council authorized 5,200 UN peacekeepers to replace a 3,300-strong EU
force in Chad and Central African Republic, which have been seriously
affected by fighting in neighboring Sudan's Darfur region.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 28, Five African and
international human rights groups called on the African Union to press
Senegal to move forward with the trial of former Chadian dictator
Hissene Habre.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, French PM Francois
Fillon said 1,000 French 1,650 soldiers would be pulled out from the
EUFOR mission to protect refugees in Chad. He also says France's
1,800-strong contingent in Ivory Coast will be reduced by half.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 30, In Libreville, Gabon,
leaders of the six Central African states (Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, CAR,
Congo, Equatorial Guinea), began meeting to discuss closer economic
ties, including the creation of a new regional airline. The Economic
and Monetary Union of Central Africa, known as CEMAC, planned
discussions on such issues as monetary reform and the free movement of
citizens.
(AFP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 4, Poland’s defense
minister stated plans to end military missions in Lebanon, the Golan
Heights and Chad in an effort to cut spending due to the global
economic crisis.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 14, Over 6,000 people
have fled the Ndele region of the Central African Republic for a
Chadian border village after violence erupted between two ethnic
groups, the Runga and the Gulus.
(AFP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 19, Belgium took Senegal
to the International Court of Justice over the African nation's failure
to prosecute a former Chad president for crimes against humanity and
torture.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Mar 15, In Abeche, Chad, UN
forces took over command from EU peacekeepers to protect refugees and
displaced people in Chad and the Central African Republic.
(AFP, 3/15/09)
2009 Apr 6, Belgium began World
Court proceedings against Senegal in an effort to bring former Chad
President Hissene Habre on trial for alleged widespread human rights
abuses during his eight-year reign. A Chadian commission of inquiry has
concluded that Habre's regime killed at least 3,780 political
opponents, but added that the figure likely represents only 10 percent
of his victims.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 May 5, Sudan denied
accusations by the government of Chad that its forces had launched an
attack against the neighboring African state.
(AFP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 8, Chad’s government
claimed that 225 rebels and 22 soldiers had been killed in clashes over
the last 2 days south of the main eastern city of Abeche.
(AFP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 16, Sudan accused Chad of
mounting a second series of air strikes on its territory and said the
conflict between the African neighbors must be resolved politically.
(AFP, 5/16/09)
2009 May 17, Chad said its air
force had completed raids on "mercenaries" inside Sudan, announcing its
aircraft had destroyed seven groups of fighters while ground forces had
captured 100 prisoners on the border.
(Reuters, 5/17/09)
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