top of page

An overview of Chad.

Geography and Demography

 

Chad, with an area of more than 1.2 million km², is one of the largest countries in Africa and more than 31 times larger than Switzerland. With a population of 12.45 million (as of 2012)(1), this equates to almost 10 inhabitants per km². A large portion of the population is concentrated south of the capital, N'Djamena, where a predominantly tropical humid climate prevails. In the sparsely populated north, which consists mainly of parts of the Sahara Desert, nomadic tribes are the predominant population.

 

The population consists of over 130 different ethnic groups, most of which speak their own languages or dialects. In the north, there are primarily Arabized and Islamized groups, while in the south, Christian and animist groups are more common. Overall, the population is divided into 56% Sunni Muslims, 22% Christians, and 22% animists. (2)

 

Screenshot 2018-09-07 at 13:58:44.pn

Facts and figures

 

Official languages: Arabic and French
Life expectancy at birth: 54 years (2019) (3)
Human Development Index: 0.398 (Rank 187 out of 189) (4)
Currency: FCFA (Central African Franc: 1 CHF = approx. 535 FCFA (very volatile)) (5)

Switzerland contributed CHF 4.81 million to humanitarian aid in Chad in 2020. (6)

 

Politics and Economics

 

From 1990 to 2021, Idriss Deby Itno was the president of Chad, having come to power through a coup. According to media reports, he was killed in mid-April 2021 during fighting against rebels north of the capital, N'Djamena.
Since then, a transitional government has been formed, led by a military general who is also a descendant of the former president. It was announced that democratic elections would be held after 18 months.

 

These developments were accompanied by protests in several of the country's major cities, which were, however, quickly suppressed by the police and military. Now, in mid-2021, the situation in the country appears to have stabilized. The borders are open, and the population is awaiting further developments regarding the new elections. The threatened invasion of the capital, N'Djamena, by rebel groups organized in the north of the country and in Libya has become unlikely following a military operation by French troops.

 

Chad's neighboring countries are also unstable. Journalists regularly report on conflicts in Sudan/South Sudan, Nigeria, and the Central African Republic. Chad hosts over 280,000 Sudanese refugees, particularly since the Darfur conflict and the secession of South Sudan. Over 80,000 more refugees have arrived from the Central African Republic following the renewed conflict between Christians and Muslims. Chad has deployed its own troops to the neighboring country to help control the conflict. (7) In addition, there are intense conflicts west of Chad in Nigeria, where the radical Islamist group Boko Haram regularly carries out attacks and controls certain regions of the country.
The risk of conflicts spreading from one of these countries to Chad is difficult to assess.

Infrastructure and health system

 

Unfortunately, there are hardly any current sources on this topic.
Despite its enormous size, the country has only a few hundred kilometers of paved roads, which are often impassable during the rainy season. There is no railway network, and buses operate only for long-distance travel between major cities and along main routes. The capital city has the only intercontinental airport, and there are also eight airports with paved runways offering flights within Africa.

Water supply is partially available in large cities. There, the water is usually clean and drinkable and relatively inexpensive. In rural areas, contaminated water is often obtained from open or mechanical well systems.

 

A comprehensive and reliable electricity supply exists only in a few districts of the capital. Other larger cities have public power grids, but these are very susceptible to outages, often leaving residents without electricity for several days. Therefore, many people resort to using small emergency generators.

 

The healthcare system in Chad is divided into peripheral and central units. Primary care is provided by so-called "Centres de Santé," where initial consultations, vaccinations, etc., are performed. These units only employ nurses, not doctors. In larger towns, there are public and sometimes private centers that serve as referral hospitals for the "Centres de Santé." These hospitals almost always have only one or two doctors, who are often affiliated with several hospitals. The doctor-to-population ratio in Chad is 4 per 100,000 inhabitants (8) (for comparison: 100 times lower than in Switzerland, 407 per 100,000).

State hospitals have implemented a system of free care for certain treatments. This primarily applies to emergencies or illnesses such as tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS. However, the problem is often the strain on healthcare staff due to the influx of patients and the corruption of doctors and nurses, which quickly undermines the concept of free treatment. Therefore, private hospitals are becoming increasingly important. Their treatment prices are often the same as in public hospitals, but the services they offer are significantly better.

Personal impression

 

Chad is a very impressive country in many respects. Despite the pervasive poverty, crime is very low, and at least as a man, you can move around quite freely. Even as the only white person on the streets, you are rarely approached by beggars, and if you are, you often hear someone say: "Stop it, we are Chadians and we don't start begging."

 

Despite the many different ethnic and religious groups in the country, there is a great deal of tolerance among the Chadians. The various faiths are accepted and practiced, so much so that, for example, an entire tour bus full of Christians waits on the bus for the Muslim driver while he performs his midday prayer. Particularly in August, during Ramadan, entire roads are sometimes blocked, but people don't complain. The population also clearly distances itself from the religiously motivated conflicts in the neighboring Central African Republic.

 

One gets the feeling that the country is on the upswing. People are investing in their children's education, in houses, and in small businesses. Their development is often hampered by the state, which has embedded its control mechanisms everywhere, yet the president enjoys widespread acceptance. This is probably difficult for a European to understand, but the underlying idea is that this president and his ethnic group, the Zagawa, have already become wealthy, and the country is currently stable. Should a change of government occur, the population fears a similar civil war scenario to that of 1998-2010.

bottom of page