The Democratic Front of Chad (''Front Démocratique du Tchad'' or FDT) was a

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

ian political party active in the 1980s. A coalition of four pre-existing groups formed in Paris in 1985 in opposition to both opposition leader

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 Civi ...

and President Hissène Habré, and dominated by southern Chadians, it was led by the general

Negue Djogo Negue Djogo (born February 2, 1932) was a Chadian officer and politician. A French-trained Sara Catholic officer, his first prominent assignment came in 1966 when, still a lieutenant, he was made by President François Tombalbaye prefect of the k ...

. Among its members was the future Prime Minister

Jean Alingué Bawoyeu Jean Alingué Bawoyeu (born August 18, 1937), known in French as the ''vieux sage'', which translates as "wise elder", is a Chadian politician who was Prime Minister of Chad from 1991 to 1992. During the 1970s, he served successively as Ambassado ...

. The FDT, which boasted that it was supported by the United States and France, accused Habré's government of genocide for its massacres in the south, and it supported the

Codos {{For, the Spanish municipality, Codos, Aragon The Codos or Commandos were guerrilla groups, active in southern Chad from 1983 to 1986, that resisted domination of their region by the President Hissène Habré's army. Many were veterans of the go ...

' insurgency. At the end of 1985 the group participated with

Alphonse Kotiga Colonel Alphonse Kotiga, also known as Kotiga Guérina, was a Chadian military officer and politician. He was one of the leaders of the coup d'etat which overthrew and killed Chadian President François Tombalbaye on 15 April 1975, and then became ...

's Codos and

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 ...

's CAC-CDR at peace talks with Habré at

Libreville Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon. Occupying in the northwestern province of Estuaire, Libreville is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea. As of the 2013 census, its population was 703,904. The area has been inh ...

in Gabon under the patronage of

Omar Bongo El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba (born Albert-Bernard Bongo; 30 December 1935 – 8 June 2009) was a Gabonese politician who was the second President of Gabon for 42 years, from 1967 until his death in 2009. Omar Bongo was promoted to key positions as ...

. The talks were successful, and on December 23 Djogo signed a peace accord which sanctioned the entrance of the FDT in the government; Djogo was to become Minister of Justice, while other two party leaders were to be made minister of finance and minister of culture, youth, and sports. The accord also tried to fix a deadline for the adoption of a democratic constitution, and this party's goal was reasserted in a press conference on March 4, 1986, when Djogo stated that the FDT saw as the sole solution to Chad's crisis a return to democratic institutions. But in truth the FDT was rapidly co-opted in the sole legal party, Habré's National Union for Independence and Revolution (UNIR), of which Djogo became a member of the Central Committee in 1989.

References

{{Reflist Defunct political parties in Chad 1980s in Chad