Chad

The Republic of Chad is a landlocked country in northern Africa, with the Sahara desert to the north and equatorial forest to the south. It shares borders with Sudan on the east; Libya to the north; the Central African Republic to the south; and Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger to the west. Its population is diverse, with more than 200 ethnic and language groups. Those living in the south constitute about half of the nation’s population and are primarily Black and either Christian or adherents of traditional indigenous religions, whereas those in the north are overwhelmingly Arabic and Muslim. Chad’s official languages are Arabic and French.

For more than 2,000 years, the territory of Chad was ruled by a succession of states and empires whose power rested ...