The

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 Repub ...

– Sudan border is 1,403 km (872 m) in length and runs from the

tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...

with

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, Su ...

in the north to the tripoint with the

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 the C ...

in the south.

Description

The border begins in the north at the tripoint with Libya on the 24th meridian east, and follows this meridian for 423 km (263 m) before reaching the Wadi Hawar. The border then forms a very irregular line down to the tripoint with the Central African Republic, delimited by numerous small streams, hills and other features. The northern area of the border lies within the

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

, the middle stretches within the

Sahel The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid c ...

, and the areas further south consist of grasslands and savannah.

History

The border first emerged during the

Scramble for Africa The Scramble for Africa, also called the Partition of Africa, or Conquest of Africa, was the invasion, annexation, division, and colonization of most of Africa by seven Western European powers during a short period known as New Imperialism ( ...

, a period of intense competition between European powers in the later 19th century for territory and influence in Africa. The process culminated in the

Berlin Conference The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, also known as the Congo Conference (, ) or West Africa Conference (, ), regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period and coincided with Germany's sudden emergen ...

of 1884, in which the European nations concerned agreed upon their respective territorial claims and the rules of engagements going forward. As a result of this

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

gained control of the upper valley of the

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mali ...

(roughly equivalent to the areas of modern

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...

and Niger), and also the lands explored by

Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazzà, later known as Pierre Paul François Camille Savorgnan de Brazza; 26 January 1852 – 14 September 1905), was an Italian-born, naturalized French explorer. With his family's financial help, he explored the Ogoou ...

for France in Central Africa (roughly equivalent to modern

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

and

Congo-Brazzaville The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

). From these bases the French explored further into the interior, eventually linking the two areas following expeditions in April 1900 which met at

Kousséri Kousséri (from ar, قصور ''quṣūr'' meaning "palaces"), founded and known as Mser in the indigenous Mser language is a city in Far North Province, Cameroon. It is the capital of the Logone-et-Chari department. It is a market town, and ...

in the far north of modern

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; th ...

. These newly conquered regions were initially ruled as military territories, with the two areas later organised into the federal colonies of French West Africa (''Afrique occidentale française'', abbreviated AOF) and

French Equatorial Africa French Equatorial Africa (french: link=no, Afrique-Équatoriale française), or the AEF, was the federation of French colonial empire, French colonial possessions in Equatorial Africa, extending northwards from the Congo River into the Sahel, ...

(''Afrique équatoriale française'', AEF). Meanwhile, the British had conquered Sudan in the 1890s and administered it a condominium with Egypt (

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ( ar, السودان الإنجليزي المصري ') was a condominium of the United Kingdom and Egypt in the Sudans region of northern Africa between 1899 and 1956, corresponding mostly to the territory of present-day ...

In 1898-99 Britain and France agreed upon their mutual spheres of influence in northern third of Africa. In the north French influence would run no further than that of a diagonal line running from the intersection of the

Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted tow ...

and the

16th meridian east The meridian 16° east of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, Europe, Africa, the Atlantic Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole. The 16th meridian east forms a grea ...

to the 24th meridian east, that is, the majority of the modern

Chad–Libya border The Chad–Libya border is 1,050 km (652 mi) in length and runs from the tripoint with Niger in the west, to the tripoint with Sudan in the east. Description The border consists of two straight line segments. The first is a continuation of ...

. To the east the frontier would continue south along the 24th meridian down to the border of the

Sultanate of Darfur The Sultanate of Darfur was a pre-colonial state in present-day Sudan. It existed from 1603 to October 24, 1874, when it fell to the Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr and again from 1898 to 1916, when it was conquered by the British and integr ...

in the vicinity of the

15th parallel north The 15th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 15 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Saharan fringe (the Sahel) in Africa, three key peninsulars of Asia (between which parts of the Indian Ocean), the Pacific ...

, whereupon it would roughly follow the border between Darfur and the Wadai Sultanate. The precise joining point of the 16th and 24th meridians (i.e. the modern Chad-Libya-Sudan tripoint) was affirmed at the Anglo-French Convention of 8 September 1919. The AEF-Anglo-Egyptian Sudan boundary was demarcated on the ground by an Anglo-French commission in 1921-23 and the final border ratified on 21 January 1924. In 1935 France and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

signed a

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal perso ...

which would have awarded the

Aouzou Strip The Aouzou Strip (; ar, قطاع أوزو, Qiṭāʿ Awzū, french: Bande d'Aozou) is a strip of land in northern Chad that lies along the border with Libya, extending south to a depth of about 100 kilometers into Chad's Borkou, Ennedi Ouest, ...

Italian Libya Libya ( it, Libia; ar, ليبيا, Lībyā al-Īṭālīya) was a colony of the Fascist Italy located in North Africa, in what is now modern Libya, between 1934 and 1943. It was formed from the unification of the colonies of Italian Cyrenaica a ...

, thus shifting the tripoint south, however this treaty was never ratified. On 1 January 1956 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan declared independence as the Republic of Sudan; Chad followed later on 11 August 1960 and the border then became an international frontier between two independent states. Since then relations between the two states have often been tense, with each accusing the other of harbouring rebel groups which are allowed to cross the boundary. For instance, Sudan offered 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 ...

rebel group sanctuary in western Sudan during the Chadian Civil War (1965–1979), and later the Patriotic Salvation Movement of current Chadian 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-ra ...

, who invaded Chad from his base in Darfur in 1990 and overthrew president

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 un ...

in the

1990 Chadian coup d'état The 1990 Chadian coup d'état took place on 3 December 1990 when the forces of the Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS), a Libyan–backed rebel group under the leadership of General Idriss Déby, entered the Chadian capital N'Djamena unopposed. ...

.Byrnes, Rita M. "Relations with Nigeria and Sudan"
''Chad: A Country Study''
(Thomas Collelo, editor).

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...

Federal Research Division The Federal Research Division (FRD) is the research and analysis unit of the United States Library of Congress. The Federal Research Division provides directed research and analysis on domestic and international subjects to agencies of the Un ...

(December 1988). Relations steadily deteriorated in later years as Chad became caught up in the

War in Darfur The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War, is a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups ...

, resulting in large numbers of refugees crossing the border. Following an attack on the Chadian border town of Adré in 2005 by Chadian rebel group the

Rally for Democracy and Liberty The Rally for Democracy and Liberty, abbreviated as R.D.L. (Rassemblement pour la Démocratie et la Liberté in French) is a Chadian rebel group that was formed in August 2005 by former members of the Military of Chad who deserted and united under ...

, Chad publicly accused Sudan of backing the group.Chad in 'state of war' with Sudan
By Stephanie Hancock, BBC News,

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

, 23 December 2005 The subsequent

proxy war A proxy war is an armed conflict between two states or non-state actors, one or both of which act at the instigation or on behalf of other parties that are not directly involved in the hostilities. In order for a conflict to be considered a pr ...

between Chad and Sudan resulted in numerous cross-border incursions and fighting, until a peace treaty was arranged in 2010.Sudan, Chad agree to end proxy wars
''Mail & Guardian'', February 9, 2010

Settlements near the border

Chad

* Bahaï * Teriba * Mayba * Sogoni * Guéréda * Birak * Bali * Ardemi * Goundou * Kawa * Toumtouma * Biske *

Adré Adré (Arabic: أدري) is the main town of the Assoungha department in the Ouaddaï Region of Chad. It is located very close to Chad's eastern border with Sudan, 400m away. The town is served by Adré Airport. History The Chadian-Sudanese co ...

* Amdjereme * Borota * Ambakali * Gargounyou * Goz Merem * Hilleket * Kirana * Bir Kandji * Am Leiouna * Adé * Moudouga * Chuchumoru * Hadjer Beid * Madoyna * Madoua * Niarinion * Arday * Mongororo * Gabasour * Kedet * Bourtoutou * Nzili

Sudan

* Likoyla * Karnoi * Tandubayah * Girgira * Melmelli * Geneina * Misterei * Tabbi Nyebbei * Beida * Chero Kasi * Habilah * Bandadito * Foro Burunga * Babil * Timassi

References