The Kano Accord was preceded by the collapse of central authority in Chad in 1979, when the Prime Minister,

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 ...

, had unleashed his militias on February 12 against the capital

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 ...

and the sitting president, Félix Malloum. To route the President's forces, Habré had allied himself with the rival warlord

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 ...

, who entered N'Djamena on February 22 at the head of his

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). The situation alarmed the country's neighbours, worried of a possible spill-over; as a result, already on February 16 the Sudanese minister Izz Eldine Hamed had arrived in N'Djamena where he negotiated a

ceasefire A ceasefire (also known as a truce or armistice), also spelled cease fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be between state act ...

among the rival factions. The Sudanese proposed organizing a peace conference in neutral territory, and

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 ...

's President

Olusegun Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo, , ( ; yo, Olúṣẹ́gun Ọbásanjọ́ ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian political and military leader who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its presid ...

offered

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 Northern Nigeria, as seat for the conference. He also invited as observers Chad's neighbouring countries (

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

, Sudan,

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesAboubakar Abdel Rahmane Aboubakar Abdel Rahmane (died 1979) was a Chadian warlord active during the civil war. His early life is very undocumented, and his date of birth is unknown. A semi-literate Muslim Kanembu, he originally belonged to Goukouni Oueddei's People's A ...

. Among the four, Malloum represented the French-backed national government, Habré and Goukouni the county's biggest insurgent forces, while Aboubakar, leader of a minor insurgent group, the

Popular Movement for the Liberation of Chad {{BLP primary sources, date=June 2021 The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Chad (''Mouvement Populaire pour la Libération du Tchad'' or MPLT) was a small rebel group active in Chad during the civil war. It was born in 1977 as a splinter gro ...

(MPLT), could count on the support of Nigeria. These four signed the Kano Accord on National Reconciliation on March 16, and it became effective on March 23, when Malloum and Habré formally resigned. The six points of the accord were: *The demilitarization of N'Djamena *An amnesty for all political prisoners *Dissolution of the militias *Formation of a new national army *Pull-out of French troops *Nigerian forces would supervise the ceasefire It also projected the foundation of a

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), which would have governed Chad till new elections. Malloum and Habré were excluded from the GUNT, but all of the four factions present at the conference would have two ministries in the Provvisional State Council that would govern in Chad till the full establishment of the GUNT. Goukouni was to be President of this Council. The French troops, present in Chad from 1978, were to leave the country and be substituted with a multi-national

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n peacekeeping force under the aegis of the

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 ...

(OAU), represented principally by Nigerian troops. The Kano Accord was a failure, for it offended Libyan interests by excluding pro-Libyan factions like Abba Siddick's "Original FROLINAT" and

Ahmat Acyl Ahmat Acyl (1944–1982) was a Chadian Arab militia leader during the Chadian Civil War. He was the head of the Democratic Revolutionary Council until his death in 1982, and served as the foreign minister in Goukouni Oueddei's government. Vo ...

's Volcan Army, that menaced to form a counter-government if excluded from the GUNT. This brought Nigerians to search a new accord that would include a major number of factions; and from this was to emerge 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 in the Nigerian city of

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 ...

, which took the place of the Kano Accord.

External links

All peace agreements for Chad
UN Peacemaker

References

*{{cite book, author=Terry M. Mays, title=Africa's First Peacekeeping operation: The OAU in Chad, publisher=Greenwood, year=2002, isbn=0-275-97606-8 Chadian–Libyan conflict 1979 in Chad Peace treaties of Chad

See also

External links

References