Ahmat Acyl (1944–1982) was a Chadian

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

militia leader during the Chadian Civil War. He was the head of the

Goukouni Oueddei Goukouni Oueddei ( ar, كوكوني عويدي '; born 1944 in Zouar) is a Chadian politician who served as President of Chad from 1979 to 1982. A northerner, Goukouni commanded FROLINAT rebels with Libyan support during the first Chadian Civ ...

's government.

Volcan Army

Under the Tombalbaye government, Acyl had been a

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

deputy from

Batha Batha may refer to: * Batha Region, one of the regions of Chad * Batha Prefecture, a former division of Chad * Batha, Lebanon, one of the villages in Keserwan District in Lebanon * Batha, an alternate term for garrigue, or Mediterranean scrubland * ...

.M. Azevedo 1998, p. 148 In 1976 he joined the small Arab-dominated

Volcan Army The Volcan Army was a Chadian insurgent rebel group that was active during the Chadian Civil War. The movement was founded in 1970 by the Arab insurgent leader Mohamed Baghlani, who had been expelled in June from the FROLINAT by the organization ...

. With the support of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's president, he opposed the group's leader,

Mohamed Baghlani Mohamed Baghlani (died 1977) was a Chadian insurgent leader during the First Chadian Civil War. Formation of FROLINAT Baghlani was the most prominent Arab member of the Chadian National Union (UNT), an Islamic political party founded in 1958 ...

, and when the latter died in a traffic accident in

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

in 1977, promptly became the new leader of the

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

. From that moment, he was known as Gaddafi's man in Chad. Acyl rapidly strengthened his militia, which became famous for the quality of its fighters and garnered increasing support among the

Baggara The Baggāra ( ar, البَقَّارَة "heifer herder") or Chadian Arabs are a nomadic confederation of people of mixed Arab and Arabized indigenous African ancestry, inhabiting a portion of the Sahel mainly between Lake Chad and the Nile ri ...

element in the country. Libya's support was also important to Acyl's group, which from 1978 became bigger and steadier than the other insurgent factions. In the same year Acyl supported Libya's goal to reunite the

FROLINAT FROLINAT (french: Front de libération nationale du Tchad; en, National Liberation Front of Chad) was an insurgent rebel group active in Chad between 1966 and 1993. Origins The organization was a result of the political union between the left ...

's main factions, that resulted in the congress of Faya in which

, leader of the

People's Armed Forces The People's Armed Forces (''Forces Armées Populaires'' or FAP) was a Chadian insurgent group composed of followers of Goukouni Oueddei after the schism with Hissène Habré in 1976. With an ethnic base in the Teda clan of the Toubou from the ...

(FAP), became the new secretary-general of the FROLINAT. The accord didn't last long. Gaddafi instigated Acyl to attack Oueddei's FAP in Faya on August 27, 1978 in an attempt to wrest control of FROLINAT from him, but Acyl was defeated. Acyl, at the time the FROLINAT's adjutant chief of staff in charge of the direction and administration of the military, promptly left Faya for

under the protection of Libyan troops.

Commander of the CDR

Acyl's faction, renamed

Democratic Revolutionary Council The Democratic Revolutionary Council (french: Conseil démocratique révolutionnaire or ''CDR''), active in Chad, was a faction of FROLINAT founded by Ahmat Acylbattle of N'Djamena that erupted in February 1979 and caused the fall of the government in Chad. For this he was overlooked at the first international peace conference held in March in

Kano Kano may refer to: Places *Kano State, a state in Northern Nigeria * Kano (city), a city in Nigeria, and the capital of Kano State **Kingdom of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between the 10th and 14th centuries **Sultanate of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between ...

, in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, where the main militias agreed to create a government of national unity, which excluded all pro-Libyan factions.T. Mays 2002, p. 38 As a reaction Acyl and other insurgent leaders such as Abba Siddick, Adoum Dana and Mohamat Said, threatened to create a counter-government; this cowed Nigeria into organizing a second peace conference in Kano, in April, where all main rebel leaders were present, including Acyl. At the conference Goukouni and

Hissène Habré Hissène Habré (Arabic: ''Ḥusaīn Ḥabrī'', Chadian Arabic: ; ; 13 August 1942 – 24 August 2021), also spelled Hissen Habré, was a Chadian politician and convicted war criminal who served as the 5th president of Chad from 1982 u ...

attacked Acyl and other faction leaders, accusing them of having no real military strength on the ground. The participants of the conference were unable to reach any agreement on forming the cabinet, and a few weeks later Habré and Goukouni unilaterally agreed with the N'Djamena Accord to exclude Acyl and his allies from the new

Transitional Government of National Unity The Transitional Government of National Unity (''Gouvernement d'Union Nationale de Transition'' or GUNT) was the coalition government of armed groups that nominally ruled Chad from 1979 to 1982, during the most chaotic phase of the long-running ci ...

(GUNT). In their view, Acyl was just "a Libyan provocateur". The increasingly chaotic situation in Chad brought Nigeria to convene in May a third reconciliation conference, this time in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

, to which all factions were invited. In response, Acyl and others arrived, but discovered that the factions that formed the GUNT had boycotted the meeting, causing the failure of the conference. Acyl, with Said and Siddick, on June 2 created in northern Chad with Libyan military support a new political project under Acyl's leadership, the Front for Joint Provisional Action (FACP). Amid rumors that Libya and Nigeria might recognize the FACP as Chad's legitimate government, the GUNT was given five weeks by the international community to include the other factions in the government. At the end, the GUNT submitted, and its factions participated in a second peace conference in Lagos, open to all parties. The result of the summit was the

Lagos Accord {{Short description, 1979 Chadian Civil War peace treaty The Lagos Accord was a peace agreement signed on August 21, 1979, by representatives of eleven warring factions of the Chadian Civil War, after a conference in Lagos, Nigeria. The accord es ...

, signed on August 21, under which a

national unity government A national unity government, government of national unity (GNU), or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties (or all major parties) in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other nat ...

was to be formed. The new cabinet was sworn into office on November 10, with Goukouni Oueddei as chairman and Acyl as foreign minister."Foe of Chad's Leader Killed in an Accident" On March 20, 1980,Defense Minister Habré with

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

ian and Sudanese support rallied his militia, the

Armed Forces of the North The Armed Forces of the North (''Forces Armées du Nord'' or FAN) was a Chadian rebel army active during the Chadian Civil War. Composed of FROLINAT units that remained loyal to Hissène Habré following his break from Goukouni Oueddei and the ...

, in an attempt to overthrow Goukouni, leading to the second battle of N'Djamena, which pitched Habré's men against factions led by Goukouni, Acyl and the vice-president,

Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué (May 20, 1939 – May 9, 2011) was a Chadian politician and army officer. Kamougué was a leading figure in the 1975 coup d'état and subsequently held several positions in the Chadian government and legislature. He was ...

. To defeat his rival Goukouni, probably persuaded by Acyl, on June 15 signed a defense pact with Libya; as a result 7,000 Libyan troops and 7,000 members of the Libyan-raised

Islamic Legion The Islamic Legion ( ar, الفيلق الإسلامي ''al-Faylaq ul-'Islāmiyyu''G. Prunier, ''Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide'', p. 45) ( Islamic Pan-African Legion) was a Libyan-sponsored pan-Arabist and pan-Islamist paramilitary force, creat ...

were in Chad by the end of 1980, and helped expel Habré from

N'Djamena N'Djamena ( ) is the capital and largest city of Chad. It is also a special statute region, divided into 10 districts or ''arrondissements''. The city serves as the centre of economic activity in Chad. Meat, fish and cotton processing are the c ...

on December 16, after a week of harsh fighting.J. Wright 1989, pp. 131–132B. Lanne 1984, "Le Sud, l'État et la révolution", pp. 30–44 This was followed on January 6, 1981, by a joint communiqué issued by Goukouni and Gaddafi, that stated that Chad and Libya had agreed to "work for the realization of complete unity between the two countries". The comuniqué, while strongly supported by Acyl and his faction, had a negative international response, and was also unpopular in Chad; Goukouni was now seen as a Libyan puppet. Relations between Goukouni and Gaddafi became strained, possibly because of rumors that Gaddafi was instigating a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

against Goukouni, to replace him with Acyl. Goukouni's suspicions of plans to replace him with Acyl had been fueled previously by the assassination by Libyans of two senior FROLINAT officials, and the clashes between the First Army and Acyl's CDR. Consequently, when, on October 22,

French president The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is ...

François Mitterrand proposed to send an

Organisation of African Unity The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; french: Organisation de l'unité africaine, OUA) was an intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 32 signatory governments. One of the main heads for OAU's ...

peace contingent into Chad to replace the Libyans. Goukouni and the GUNT asked the Libyans to immediately leave Chad, but not without debate: four ministers, among them Acyl, had voted against the decision. Gaddafi rapidly complied, and the OAU troops arrived; but these proved ineffectual. Taking advantage of the Libyans' departure, Habré in 1982 attacked the GUNT, advancing across central Chad from his bases in Darfur, and occupied N'Djamena with hardly any opposition on June 7, forcing the GUNT to flee. A month later, on July 19, Acyl died in the southwestern town of

Laï Laï ( ar, لادي) is a city in Chad. It lies on the Logone River and is the capital of the region of Tandjilé. The town is served by Laï Airport. History This city is notable for the Battle of Lai during World War I World War I ...

when he inadvertently stepped backwards into the spinning propellers of his Cessna airplane, a gift from Gaddafi. He was buried in Moundou, in front of the lycée Adoum Dallah. He was succeeded as leader of the CDR militia by the former Defense Minister

Acheikh ibn Oumar Acheikh Ibn-Oumar (born 1951) is a Chadian politician and military leader. In the 1980s he led the Democratic Revolutionary Council (in French CDR: Conseil Démocratique Révolutionnaire), a military-political group opposing the government of Pres ...

.A. de Waal, "Review of Gerard Prunier, 'Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide'"

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Acyl, Ahmat 1944 births 1982 deaths Chadian Arabs Chadian rebels Chadian expatriates in Libya Chadian–Libyan conflict Members of the National Assembly (Chad) Foreign ministers of Chad People from Batha Region