The Union of Resistance Forces (french: Union des forces de la résistance, ar, اتحاد قوى المقاومة; abbreviated UFR) is an alliance of Chadian rebel groups.

Origins

The UFR was founded in mid-January 2009 as an alliance of eight separate rebel groups:

History

The UFR was established near the end of the

Chadian Civil War (2005–2010) The most recent Chadian Civil War began on December 18, 2005. Since its independence from France in 1960, Chad has been swamped by the civil war between the Arab-Muslims of the north and the Sub-Saharan-Christians of the south. As a result, lead ...

by rebel groups opposed to the government of President

Idriss Déby Idriss Déby Itno ' (18 June 1952 – 20 April 2021) was a Chadian politician and military officer who was the president of Chad from 1990 until his death in 2021. Déby was a member of the Bidayat clan of the Zaghawa ethnic group. A high-ranki ...

Timane Erdimi Timane Erdimi is the leader of the Chadian rebel group Rally of Democratic Forces (''Rassemblement des Forces pour le Changement'', RFC) which had 800 soldiers in early 2008. He is a member of the ethnic group Zaghawa and nephew of the Chadian Pre ...

, nephew of Déby and leader of the RFC, was appointed the head of the alliance. UFR forces suffered severe losses to the

Chadian Army french: Armée nationale tchadienne , image = , alt = , caption = , image2 = , alt2 = , caption2 = , motto ...

at the

Battle of Am Dam The Battle of Am Dam took place in and around the eastern Chadian town of Am Dam on May 7 and May 8, 2009 when Chadian Army forces attacked a column of advancing Union of Forces for the Resistance (UFR) rebels. Battle At 11:30 on the morning o ...

in May 2009 and the

Battle of Tamassi The Battle of Tamassi took place around the village of Tamassi in Eastern Chad during the Chadian Civil War. This was the last major military engagement fought during the war until a peace deal was reached later that year. Battle On 24 April, ...

in April 2010. The severe casualties suffered by the UFR, along with peace agreements signed between Chad and

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

, led the alliance to splinter and disperse. It began to reconstitute itself in neighboring

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 Egypt–Libya bo ...

in 2013. The UFR reportedly took part in the June 2018 Gulf of Sidra Offensive against the

Libyan National Army The Libyan National Army (LNA; ar, الجيش الوطني الليبي, ''al-jaysh al-waṭaniyy al-Lībii'') is a component of Libya's military forces which were nominally a unified national force under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Ha ...

(LNA), attempting to capture the towns of

Ras Lanuf Ras Lanuf ( ( ar, راس لانوف , also: ''Ra’s al-Unūf'' )) is a Mediterranean town in northern Libya, on the Gulf of Sidra. The town is also home to the Ra's Lanuf Refinery, completed in 1984, with a crude oil refining capacity of . The oil ...

and

Sidra Sidra may refer to: *Sidra (name) Places *Gulf of Sidra, a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea on the northern coast of Libya *Sidra, Libya, a Libyan port *Sidra, Sokółka County, a village in Poland *Gmina Sidra, a Polish administrative dis ...

alongside the

Benghazi Defense Brigades The Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries ( ar, مجلس شورى ثوار بنغازي, ''Majlis Shura Thuwar Benghazi'') is a military coalition in Benghazi composed of Islamist and jihadist militias, including Ansar al-Sharia, Libya Shield ...

. An LNA offensive against rebel groups based in Libya's south led the UFR to re-enter Chad in January of 2019. Between February 3 and February 6, 2019, the

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Army; ...

initiated a bombing campaign against UFR targets in the

Ennedi Plateau The Ennedi Plateau is located in the northeast of Chad, in the regions of Ennedi-Ouest and Ennedi-Est. It is considered a part of the group of mountains known as the Ennedi Massif found in Chad, which is one of the nine countries that make up t ...

region as part of Operation Barkhane. On 9 February, 2019 the Chadian army claimed to have captured 250 UFR rebels, including four leaders, and destroyed forty vehicles. In February 2022, the Transitional Military Council of Chad alleged that the UFR was trying to enlist the Wagner Group to aid them in the ongoing

Insurgency in Northern Chad In 2016, the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) and the Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic (CCMSR) began a rebellion against the Chadian government. From their rear bases in southern Libya, FACT and CCMSR have lau ...

, accusing Timane Erdimi of using an advisor to Central African President Faustin-Archange Touadéra as a middleman to negotiate support.

References

Rebel groups in Chad Chadian Civil War (2005–2010) {{Chad-stub