Zouar () is a town in the Tibesti Ouest department of the

Tibesti The Tibesti Mountains are a mountain range in the central Sahara, primarily located in the extreme north of Chad, with a small portion located in southern Libya. The highest peak in the range, Emi Koussi, lies to the south at a height of and ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

in northern

Chad Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...

, located in an

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment Tibesti Mountains The Tibesti Mountains are a mountain range in the central Sahara, primarily located in the extreme north of Chad, with a small portion located in southern Libya. The highest peak in the range, Emi Koussi, lies to the south at a height of and i ...

. Prior to 2008 it was in the

Tibesti Department Tibesti () was one of four departments within the former Bourkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region of Chad. Its capital was Bardaï. In 2008 the Bourkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Region was split into three, with Tibesti Department becoming the separate Tibesti Reg ...

of the former

Bourkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region The Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti (BET) was until 2008 one of the then 18 regions of Chad, its capital being Faya-Largeau. It comprised the former Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Prefecture. Most of the region was part of the Sahara desert. In 2008, this region ...

. The seat of the '' derde'', the highest religious and political authority among the Teda of the Tibesti, the town came under French control in 1917. After Chad's independence, Zouar played an important role during the Chadian Civil War and the Chadian-Libyan conflict, when its control was hotly contended. It was first besieged in 1968 by the

FROLINAT FROLINAT (; ) was an insurgent rebel group active in Chad between 1966 and 1993. Origins The organization was the result of the political union between the leftist Chadian National Union (UNT), led by Ibrahim Abatcha, and the General Union of ...

rebels led by Mahamat Ali Taher, and was relieved only by the arrival in August of a French expeditionary force. One of the last strongholds held by the government in the north, it was attacked in June 1977 by the

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), forcing the garrison to evacuate. During the Chadian-Libyan conflict, a Libyan garrison was installed, only to be expelled when the former pro-Libyan FAP rebelled in the Tibesti in August 1986; but the town was reconquered with the Libyan counter-offensive in December. In January 1987 the

Chadian army The Chadian National Army (; , ANT) consists of the five Defence and Security Forces listed in Article 185 of the Chadian constitution of 2018, Chadian Constitution that came into effect on 4 May 2018. These are the National Army (including Chadi ...

once and for all freed Zouar. In October 1998, with the foundation of the insurgent Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT), civil war has erupted again in the north. The MDJT commander, Youssouf Togoimi, announced in June 1999 that his forces were in a position to take Zouar and Bardaï, but preferred to wait for the government troops to surrender. On 18 March 2006 the MDJT started besieging the town. Zouar is also the birthplace of the former

Head of State A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

Goukouni Oueddei Goukouni Oueddei ( '; born 1944) 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 Civil War against Chad's southern-domin ...

and of the MDJT founder Youssouf Togoimi, respectively born in 1944 and 1953. The town is served by Zouar Airport.

References

{{Reflist * https://web.archive.org/web/20111022042915/http://www.zouar.net/ Populated places in Chad Tibesti Region Oases of Chad Tibesti Mountains