Wadi Fira ( ar, وادي فيرا) is one of the 23

regions of Chad The Republic of Chad is made up of twenty-three regions. Chad was divided into regions in 2002. It was previously divided into prefectures, and then departments. Current regions This is a list of the regions of Chad since 2012, with population ...

. Its

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

is the town of Biltine. The region corresponds with the former

prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international ...

of Biltine.

Geography

The region borders

Borkou Region The Borkou region ( ar, بركو) is a region of Chad which was created in 2008 from the Borkou department of the former Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region. Its capital is Faya-Largeau. Geography Borkou is located in the Sahara Desert, and contains ...

Ennedi-Ouest Region Ennedi-Ouest Region ( ar, إنيدي الغربية) is one of the twenty-three regions of Chad. It was created in 2012 from the western half of the former Ennedi Region. It appears to cover the same territory as the former Ennedi Ouest Depart ...

and

Ennedi-Est Region Ennedi Est Region ( ar, إنيدي الشرقية) is one of the twenty-three regions of Chad. The capital of the region is Am-Djarass. The region's current governor is General Hassan Djorobo. History It was established in 2012 from part of th ...

to the north,

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 ...

to the east,

Ouaddaï Region Ouaddaï ( ar, وداي) is a region of Chad, located in the south-east of the country, with its capital at Abéché. Prior to 2002 it was known as Ouaddaï Prefecture; in 2008 the southern portions of Ouaddaï (the Sila Department and Djourf ...

to the south, and Batha Region to the west. The terrain is savannah merging into the

Sahara Desert , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

in the north, and rising to the east.

Settlements

Biltine is the region's capital; other major settlements include

Guéréda Guéréda ( ar, غيريدا) is a town in the Wadi Fira Region, Chad. It is located at around . Guéréda was the site of fighting between the Chadian army and the Rally of Democratic Forces (RAFD) in early December 2006. On December 1, el ...

Iriba Iriba ( ar, هريبا) is a small town in the Wadi Fira Region of the African country of Chad. It is known as part of the Kobé Department as well as having its own prefecture and area court. It is currently being served by the Iriba Airport. ...

and Matadjana.

Demographics

As per the 2009 Chadian census, Wadi Fira's population is 508,383. The main ethnolinguistic groups are the Amdang,

Baggara The Baggāra ( ar, :wikt:بقار#Etymology 2, البَقَّارَة "heifer herder") or Chadian Arabs are a Nomad, nomadic confederation of people of mixed Arabs, Arab and Arabization, Arabized Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous African a ...

(generally speakers of

Chadian Arabic Chadian Arabic ( ar, لهجة تشادية), also known as Shuwa Arabic, Baggara Arabic, Western Sudanic Arabic, or West Sudanic Arabic (WSA), is a variety of Arabic and the first language of 1.6 million people, both town dwellers and nomadic ca ...

), Maba, Mararit, Tama and

Zaghawa Zaghawa may refer to: * Zaghawa people * Zaghawa language Zaghawa is a Saharan language spoken by the Zaghawa people of east-central Chad (in the Sahel) and northwestern Sudan (Darfur). The people who speak this language call it Beria, from ''Be ...

Subdivisions

The region of Wadi Fira is divided into three departments, each listed with the name of its

or main town (''

chef-lieu An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lux ...

'' in French) and a list of sub-prefectures (''

sous-préfecture A subprefecture is an administrative division of a country that is below prefecture or province. Albania There are twelve Albanian counties or prefectures, each of which is divided into several districts, sometimes translated as subprefecture ...

s'').

References

Regions of Chad {{Chad-geo-stub