60 Fun Facts About Chad

What is the capital and largest city of Chad?

Roughly one in twelve Chadians lives there, on the Chari River opposite Cameroon's Kousséri.

Under what name did the French found Chad's capital in 1910?

It honoured army officer Amédée-François Lamy, killed fighting the warlord Rabih in 1900.

Chad is named after the great water body on its western border, whose Kanuri name simply means what?

The modern water body is the remnant of a mega-lake that covered 330,000 km2 some 7,000 years ago.

Which two languages are official in Chad?

More than 100 regional tongues are also spoken, and the Chadic branch of the Afroasiatic family is named after the country.

Chad's vertical tricolour flag is often noted for its similarity to the flag of which European country?

The blue was chosen instead of green to avoid confusion with Mali.

Which colour on Chad's flag stands for the sands of the Sahara?

Indigo represents the lake and Black African heritage, and red the blood shed for independence.

Chad gained independence from France on 11 August of which year?

Its first president banned opposition parties two years later.

Who was Chad's first president, overthrown and killed in 1975?

He forced civil servants to undergo yondo ritual scarring and had a dissident assassinated in Paris.

Which Chadian dictator, "Africa's Pinochet", was sentenced to life in prison by a tribunal in Senegal in 2016?

He fled to Dakar in 1990 with $11m of public money and was convicted of ordering some 40,000 killings.

The 1987 final phase of the Chadian-Libyan war is nicknamed after which vehicles used by Chadian troops?

Hilux and Land Cruiser 'technicals' helped inflict a defeat in which Libya lost a tenth of its army.

Which slice of northern Chad, claimed by Libya for supposed uranium, was awarded to Chad by the ICJ in 1994?

It runs about 100 km deep along the border and had been added to Italian Libya in 1935.

Which president ruled Chad for 30 years until killed fighting rebels in April 2021?

A Zaghawa general who took power in a 1990 coup, he was Chad's longest-serving leader.

Mahamat Déby, who succeeded his father in 2021 and won a 2024 election, has what nickname?

Trained in France, he had led Chadian special forces against jihadists in northern Mali in 2013.

Which rebel group's 2021 offensive from the north led to the death of Chad's long-time president?

The Front for Change and Concord in Chad struck just after he had won a sixth term.

Which dormant volcano is the highest point in Chad and in the entire Sahara?

It rises about 3,400 m at the southeast end of the northern mountains and has been studied as an analogue for a Martian volcano.

Which mountain range in Chad's far north contains the Sahara's highest peaks?

Its name means 'place where the mountain people live'; French colonists only took control in 1929.

The Guelta d'Archei, a desert pool where camels drink beside relict crocodiles, lies on which sandstone plateau?

Rock paintings show the West African crocodile once thrived across the Sahara; the site is a four-day drive from the capital.

Which natural arch in northeastern Chad is the longest outside China and Utah?

Its span is about 76 m, but its height of roughly 120 m is even more striking.

A group of 18 desert lakes in northeastern Chad, a World Heritage Site since 2012, is known by what name?

They survive in a place with under 2 mm of rain a year; the largest, Lake Yoa, is about 25 m deep.

Dust from Chad's Bodélé Depression is said to supply over half the nutrients feeding which ecosystem?

The dry basin is the country's lowest point and made of diatoms from a prehistoric mega-lake.

Which is Chad's oldest national park, declared in 1963 and known for its elephants?

African Parks has run it since 2010, after poaching massacres of elephant herds.

Which two rivers flow from the southeast into Lake Chad?

They meet at the capital, which forms a cross-border conurbation with Cameroon's Kousséri.

Because of its distance from the sea and its desert climate, Chad has been called what?

The nearest seaport is Douala in Cameroon, 1,060 km from the capital.

Chad is the fifth-largest country in Africa; how many countries border it?

They are Libya, Sudan, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger.

The seven-million-year-old skull nicknamed Toumaï, found in Chad, belongs to which genus?

The president himself chose the nickname, honouring a fallen comrade-in-arms.

Toumaï, the name given to the famous Chadian fossil skull, means what in the Daza language?

It is a name given to babies born just before the dry season, whose survival chances are slim.

Which empire, founded around 700 AD near the lake, was the first and longest-lasting state in Chad's Sahel?

Its scribes developed their own script style, the barnawi, and its capital Njimi lay in what is now Chad.

Which sultanate east of the lake, founded in the 1600s, made Abéché its capital and resisted French conquest?

It fell to France only in 1912; the old town still holds sultans' tombs and a 19th-century Grand Mosque.

Which Sudanese warlord's forces did three French columns defeat at Kousséri in April 1900?

The victory linked France's African possessions and opened the way to the military territory of Chad.

Which black governor of Chad rallied the colony to Charles de Gaulle's Free French in 1940?

Born in French Guiana, he had earlier been the first Black man to hold a senior colonial post, as governor of Guadeloupe.

Which cash crop, introduced by France in 1929, earned about 80% of Chad's exports before oil?

Cotontchad, the state cotton company, was propped up by France and the EU when world prices fell.

Which lender part-financed Chad's 2003 oil pipeline to the Atlantic, then suspended its loans in 2006?

An ExxonMobil-led consortium spent $3.7 billion; the lender demanded 80% of revenues go to development.

Which people of the south, about 30% of the population, are Chad's largest ethnic group?

They were the only group the French governed effectively, and produced the country's first president.

The nomads of Chad's Saharan north, whose name may mean 'rock people', are called what?

They divide into the Teda and Daza and gave the country the dictator convicted in Dakar.

Which grain is the staple of Chadian cooking, eaten as balls of paste dipped in sauce?

The dish is called alysh in the north and biya in the south, and the grain also makes billi-billi beer.

Carcaje, a popular sweet red tea in Chad, is made from the leaves of which plant?

Southerners also brew grain beers, while alcohol is absent in the Muslim north.

Chad's national football team is nicknamed after which ancient civilisation of the lake region?

Les Sao have never reached a World Cup or Africa Cup of Nations and were banned by FIFA in 2021 over government interference.

In Chad's traditional freestyle wrestling, competitors wear animal hides and cover themselves with what?

Basketball is the other widely played sport, and the country has never won an Olympic medal.

Which Chadian director's film A Screaming Man won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2010?

His Daratt had earlier taken a Grand Special Jury Prize at Venice; the country has just one cinema.

Which band, formed in 1964, is credited with launching Chad's modern music scene?

Later groups mixed tradition with modernity, though Chadians long disdained modern music.

Chad's national anthem, adopted at independence, is titled what?

It was written by Louis Gidrol and his students and composed by Paul Villard.

Which currency does Chad share with Cameroon, Gabon and three other Central African states?

It is issued by the Bank of Central African States and pegged to the euro.

Into how many provinces is Chad divided?

Each has a presidentially appointed governor, and they split into 120 departments.

Under the 2023 constitution, Chad's president may serve at most two consecutive terms of how many years?

The old two-term limit had been scrapped in 2005 so the long-time ruler could keep running.

How many refugees was Chad hosting in 2025, more per head than any other African country?

More than 1.3 million had fled the war in Sudan, many through the border town of Adré.

In which year did the last French soldiers leave Chad, ending decades of military presence?

Relations had cooled under the younger president, though French troops had twice helped repel rebels from the capital.

Which religion is followed by just over half of Chadians, mostly in the north and east?

Christians make up about 41%, concentrated in the south, and Tijaniyah Sufism dominates among Muslims.

Chad ranks third in the world in what?

Only Kazakhstan and Mongolia are bigger without a coastline; Chad covers about 1.28 million km2.

Lake Chad, though it fluctuates wildly with the seasons, ranks as Africa's second-largest what?

It shrank from about 25,000 km2 in 1960 to around 2,000 km2 by 1980 before partly stabilising.

Which colonial federation did Chad join after France secured full control around 1920?

French rule was thin, staffed by what one account calls the dregs of the civil service, and focused on a single export crop.

Which northern rebel front launched the civil war of 1965 against Chad's southern-dominated government?

Its commanders later fought each other until one of them seized the capital in 1979.

In the 2008 Battle of the capital, about 2,000 rebels seized much of the city but failed to capture what?

After two days they withdrew east; French forces evacuated foreigners and quietly supplied the army with ammunition.

At about 1,284,000 square kilometres, Chad is roughly the what-largest country in the world?

It lies between latitudes 7 and 24 degrees north.

Roughly how many people live in Chad's capital, N'Djamena?

The other major towns, Sarh, Moundou, Abeche and Doba, are far smaller.

About what share of Chad's population is under the age of 15?

Life expectancy is around 52 years, and the birth rate is about 42 per 1,000.

How large was the ancient lake that filled the Chad Basin some 7,000 years ago?

Today's Lake Chad covers only about 17,800 square kilometres and fluctuates heavily.

How many terrestrial ecoregions does Chad contain?

They range from East Sudanian savanna in the south to Tibesti-Jebel Uweinat montane woodlands in the north.

Chad's literacy rate, one of the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, is roughly what?

Only 68 percent of boys attend primary school despite compulsory attendance.

Roughly how many Sudanese refugees fled to eastern Chad from Darfur after 2003?

They joined about 172,600 Chadians displaced by civil war in the east.

How high does Emi Koussi, Chad's dormant volcano and highest point, rise above sea level?

It is also the highest peak anywhere in the Sahara.