Word: chadness
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...François Mitterrand has sent close to $40 million worth of arms and supplies to its former colony since late June. Last week France responded to an urgent plea from Habré by shipping antiaircraft weaponry to N'Djamena. Mitterrand has hesitated to send French troops to Chad. But he has come under pressure from a number of African nations that fear a Libyan victory in Chad would encourage Gaddafi to spread his subversion throughout the area...
Their worries are well founded. As most eyes were focused on Chad last week, a Marxist who has expressed open admiration for Gaddafi overthrew the pro-Western government of President Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo in nearby Upper Volta. Street fighting in the capital city of Ouagadougou left five dead and 15 wounded. Ouédraogo was replaced by a "National Council of Revolution" headed by Thomas Sankara, 35, a brash, charismatic army captain. In the past, Libya has also made trouble by attempting to undermine pro-Western governments in Niger, Senegal and Tunisia...
...Soviet Union predictably accused the U.S. of "threatening peace and international security." Most countries in the region, however, welcomed the Western help. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been deeply concerned about Libyan intervention in Chad, fearing that one of Gaddafi's longer-term aims is to destabilize the Sudan, Egypt's southern neighbor and ally. Gaddafi has sponsored at least two attempts to topple Sudanese President Gafaar Nimeiri. Last February the U.S. responded to suspicious Libyan air force movements near the Sudanese border by deploying AWACS planes to Egypt and the aircraft carrier Nimitz off the Egyptian coast...
...President, Mobutu Sese Seko, also hopes to see Gaddafi's advance halted. Last month Mobutu sent 2,000 paratroopers to Chad to help guard strategic points in the capital, freeing Habré's troops for the battle against the rebels in the north. In Washington for talks with President Reagan and Secretary of State George Shultz last week, Mobutu promised to send more troops to Chad. U.S. officials praised him for his "courageous action...
Like so many African countries, Chad is an amalgam of religious and ethnic groups that were arbitrarily united by colonial rule. The country straddles the nomadic Muslim culture of the Sahara and the black African traditions of Christians and animists who are engaged in agriculture in the savannas of the more densely populated south. Although Chad's internal turmoil began as a conflict between north and south, it has grown into a power struggle between Habré and Goukouni, two Muslim warlords from the north...