Word: goukouni
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Given Habré's hatred of Goukouni and the Libyans, the Chadian President would be disinclined to negotiate with either. But with a third of his army lost, his fate is as closely bound to the decisions of his foreign mentors as Goukouni's is to the whims and ambitions of Gaddafi...
Whether the French presence will be sufficient to create a stalemate in the seven-week-old war will depend on what Gaddafi does next. Western intelligence sources put the number of Libyan troops in Chad at 2,500, while Goukouni has perhaps 3,000 men in his ragtag army. But those combined ground forces are backed by aircraft and heavy weapons, including as many as 400 tanks and armored vehicles on the outskirts of Faya-Largeau, which the government of Chad is unable to match. The Libyan air force has a base for its fighters in the Aozou Strip...
...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...
Gaddafi's primary interest in Chad is the Aozou Strip, a 60-mile-wide band near Chad's northern border. Since 1973 Libya has occupied the area, which is believed to be rich in uranium and manganese. In June 1980, Goukouni, who was then President, signed a friendship treaty with Gaddafi, granting Libya the right to intervene militarily in Chad and laying plans for a merger of the two countries. Habré, who was then Defense Minister, took up arms against Goukouni in protest, but he was defeated in December 1980. Goukouni ruled for a year...
Until June, Goukouni's rebel forces controlled a third of the country and seemed prepared to march on N'Djamena from the eastern town of Abéché. Strengthened by the delivery of more than 400 tons of arms and ammunition from France, however, Habré's army recaptured Abéché last month. After Goukouni lost Faya-Largeau, Gaddafi apparently concluded that only direct Libyan assistance could prevent a total rout of the Chadian rebels. But by sending in his air force and thereby provoking the U.S. to step up its support for Habr...