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area that today is Chad was once inhabited by a
group of politically disconnected tribes. Humanoid
skulls and cave paintings of great antiquity have
been found there. Gradually relatively weak local
kingdoms developed; these were later overtaken by
the larger and more powerful Kanem-Bornu Empire.Later,
foreigners came to have more influence in Chad.
Beginning in the Middle Ages, Chad became a crossroads
for Muslim traders and indigenous tribes. In 1900,
after the battle of Kousséri, Chad became
a part of France's colonial system.
In WWII, Chad was
the first French colony to join the Free French
and the Allies, under the leadership of its Governor,
Félix Éboué. In 1960, Chad
became an independent country, with François
Tombalbaye as its first president.
Chad's post-independence
history has been marked by instability and violence
stemming mostly from tensions between the mainly
Arab-Muslim north and the predominantly animist
and Christian south.
In 1998 an armed
insurgency began in the north, led by President
Déby's former defence chief, Youssouf Togoimi.
A Libyan-brokered peace deal in 2002 failed to
put an end to the fighting.
In 2003 and 2004,
unrest in neighbouring Sudan's Darfur region spilled
across the border, along with many thousands of
refugees.
On December 23,
2005, Chad announced that it was in a "state
of war" with Sudan. The Organisation of the
Islamic Conference (OIC) has urged Sudan and Chad
to exercise self-restraint to defuse growing tension
between the two neighboring countries.
On February 8,
2006, Chad and Sudan signed the Tripoli Agreement,
ending the Chadian-Sudanese conflict. This agreement
prohibits either country from beginning media
campaigns against one another, and also from interfering
with the others internal affairs.
On
April 13, 2006 rebels invaded the Capital, seeking
to topple the Presidency of Idriss Déby.
Government forces defeated them in the Battle
of N'Djamena. Chad then accused Sudan of supporting
and training the rebels, and severed diplomatic
ties between the two countries.
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