The Chari River, or Shari River, is a long river, flowing in

Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, ...

. It is

Lake Chad Lake Chad (french: Lac Tchad) is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Central Africa, which has varied in size over the centuries. According to the ''Global Resource Information Database'' of the United Nations Environment Programme, ...

's main source of water.

Geography

The Chari River flows from 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 th ...

through

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 ...

into

, following the

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 ...

border from

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 ...

, where it is joined by its western and principal tributary, the

Logone River The Logon or Logone River is a major tributary of the Chari River. The Logone's sources are located in the western Central African Republic, northern Cameroon, and southern Chad. It has two major tributaries: the Pendé River (Eastern Logone ...

. It provides 90 percent of the water flowing into

. The watershed of the river covers . The principal tributary is the

, while minor tributaries include the

Bahr Salamat Bahr Salamat is a seasonally intermittent river in Chad. It flows southwards, and is a tributary of the Chari River. When the Bahr Salama river is flowing, it runs through the community of Am Timan Am Timan (Arabic: أم تيمان, ''ʾUmm T ...

, the Bahr Sah), the

Bahr Aouk The Bahr Aouk River is a river in central Africa. It arises in eastern Chad at the border to Sudan and flows southwest, forming a significant portion of the international boundary between Chad and the Central African Republic. The Bahr Aouk meets ...

and the

Bahr Kéita Bahr may refer to: *Bahr, Iran, village in Bushehr Province, Iran * Bahr, village near Straßburg, now: Barr, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France *Bahr, Netherlands, hamlet in Gelderland, Netherlands *Bahr (surname) *Bahr (toponymy), a component of Arabic pla ...

. Much of Chad's population, including

Sarh Semi-active radar homing (SARH) is a common type of missile guidance system, perhaps the most common type for longer-range air-to-air and surface-to-air missile systems. The name refers to the fact that the missile itself is only a passive det ...

and the capital

, is concentrated around it. As of 2016,

remains one of four countries where

Guinea worm ''Dracunculus medinensis'', or Guinea worm, is a nematode that causes dracunculiasis, also known as guinea worm disease. The disease is caused by the female which, at up to in length, is among the longest nematodes infecting humans. In contra ...

disease remains endemic. The majority of remaining cases are concentrated around the Chari River. The river supports an important local

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

industry. One of the most highly prized local fish is the

Nile perch The Nile perch (''Lates niloticus''), also known as the African snook, Goliath perch, African barramundi , Goliath barramundi, Giant lates or the Victoria perch, is a species of freshwater fish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. It is wid ...

. Since the 1960s, there have been proposals to divert water from the

Ubangi River The Ubangi River (), also spelled Oubangui, is the largest right-bank tributary of the Congo River in the region of Central Africa. It begins at the confluence of the Mbomou (mean annual discharge 1,350 m3/s) and Uele Rivers (mean annual discharge ...

to the Chari to revitalize

, which would constitute a reversal of the capture of the upper Ubangi from the Chari by the Congo that is believed to have occurred in the early Pleistocene.

History

The Sao people are said to have lived by this river. The Chari River basin has been populated by diverse speakers of the

Chadic languages The Chadic languages form a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken in parts of the Sahel. They include 150 languages spoken across northern Nigeria, southern Niger, southern Chad, the Central African Republic, and northern Cam ...

Adamawa languages The Adamawa languages are a putative family of 80–90 languages scattered across the Adamawa Plateau in central Africa, in Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Chad, spoken altogether by only one and a half million people (as of 19 ...

Ubangian languages The Ubangian languages form a diverse linkage of some seventy languages centered on the Central African Republic. They are the predominant languages of the CAR, spoken by 2–3 million people, and include the national language, Sango. They are ...

, Bongo-Bagirmi languages.

References

{{Authority control International rivers of Africa Rivers of Cameroon Rivers of the Central African Republic Rivers of Chad Lake Chad Cameroon–Chad border

Geography

History

See also

References