Word: chad
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...Chad is remote - almost equidistant from the Red Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean. From 1966 onward it was racked by 25 years of war. N'Djamena was destroyed and the country divided into rival fiefdoms. Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi tried to annex Chad, prompting France and the U.S. to fund a covert contra war in support of Chadian warlord-turned-President Hissène Habr...
...Janjaweed - into Darfur, sparking that region's descent into bloodshed. But Déby soon fell out with Habré, who tortured and executed thousands of opponents, real and suspected. Déby is a Zaghawa - part of a tribe of black Saharans equally at home in Darfur, Chad and the oases of the Libyan Sahara. Armed by Sudan and Libya, he stormed across the Chadian savanna from rear bases in Darfur and seized power in 1990. Paris ordered its troops to stand aside, congratulated the coup maker and renewed its military cooperation pact with Chad...
Under Déby's rule, Chadians began to enjoy stability for the first time. Oil promised real wealth, even schools and clinics. But hopes soured when Déby fixed the 2001 elections and Transparency International ranked Chad as the world's most corrupt country (alongside Bangladesh). Déby faced down mutinies at home, but the fuse for the current conflict was lit with the 2003 insurrection in Darfur, led in part by his own Zaghawa tribesmen...
...French Connection Throughout Darfur's war, weapons have flooded in from Chad. When Sudan's security chiefs realized Déby would not cut the rebel supply lines, they resolved to get rid of him. Their offers of money and guns found plenty of takers among disaffected Chadian commanders. Three times the Sudanese organized attacks, nearly capturing N'Djamena in April...
...Djamena turned on Feb. 3. French logistics and intelligence were pivotal, though Déby's tactical prowess and rifts among the rebels helped too. Neither of the two main rebel chiefs, Timan Erdimi and Mahamat Nouri, wants the other to become President. The French weapons now pouring into Chad on Libyan aircraft will not seed stability. Many will flow into the armory of Déby's Darfurian ally Ibrahim Khalil, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement, encouraging him to escalate his war in Darfur...