Chad came under Arab domination during the expansion of Islam through Northern Africa. French colonial interests resulted in the deposition of the last Arab ruler in 1900. On August 11th 1960, Chad obtained independence under the leadership of François Tombalbaye. Resentment towards his policies in the Muslim north culminated in the eruption of a long-lasting civil war in 1965. In 1979 the rebels conquered the capital and put an end to the south's hegemony.
However, the rebel commanders fought amongst themselves until Hissène Habré defeated his rivals. He was overthrown in 1990 by his general Idriss Déby. Recently, the Darfur crisis in Sudan has spilt over the border and destabilised the nation, with hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees living in and around camps in eastern Chad.
This Day in 2010:
Chad and Sudan accuse each other of backing and harbouring rebels, and the dispute led to severing of relations in 2006. However, since then, progress has been made towards normalising ties, with the two countries' presidents meeting for the first time in six years in 2010.
Africa's fifth-largest nation, Chad is also ranked the fifth poorest country in the world by United Nations' Human Development Index with 80% of the population living below the poverty line. Chad became an oil-producing nation in 2003 with the completion of a $4bn pipeline linking its oilfields to terminals on the Atlantic coast. Since then crude oil has become the country's primary source of export earnings, superseding the traditional cotton industry.
[Sources various - Pictures from here
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