Chad – geography
Chad – Geography, Chad is a land inland with borders to six countries; Of these, there have been border disputes with three: in the north a dispute with Libya over the border area Aouzou and in the west with Nigeria; here in 1998 there were battles on Lake Chad. The civil war in Darfur province in Sudan has in the early 2000’s. brought refugee flows into Chad, accusing the Sudanese government of supporting rebels in eastern Chad.
Most of the country is a low-lying basin area, the Chad Basin, which is bordered by mountains to the north, east and south; highest is Tibesti to the north. In the southern part, where the annual rainfall is over 800 mm, the natural vegetation is shrubs. Here most of the country’s food crops, maize, rice, millet and root vegetables are grown. In addition, cotton and peanuts are for sale. In the 1990’s, cotton accounted for up to 65% of total exports. Repeated drought periods, in the 1980’s, the fall in food production and widespread famine meant the worst after the failed harvest in 1985, when there was also civil war and social unrest. The situation has improved as rainfall in the 1990’s became more normal. In the southern area also the majority of the population lives; the largest ethnic group is sara. The majority of the population in the south is a Christian with a strong sense of animism.
In the semi-arid middle third of the country, the annual rainfall is 500-250 mm. In this area there is only a limited agricultural production, especially millet. The main economic activity is livestock breeding; the area is north of tsetse flurange. The number of animals varies greatly as it declines substantially during drought years. In 1993 it was estimated that there were DKK 9-10 million. cattle, goats and sheep in addition to 575,000 camels. The livestock breed is characterized by well-established traditions, including annual grass and water walks. Lake Chad is important in this regard, and during the dry season a large part of the cattle are gathered here. It is also around the lake that cattle are smuggled across the border to Nigeria. The value of this traffic is unknown, but for some years it is considered to be of the same extent as cotton exports. Lake Chad varies greatly in extent, with even smaller water levels rising in importance, especially to the north, west and south, where the widths are very low. In the late 1900-t. the lake had dried up a lot. The population of this region, including the capital Ndjamenalies, constituted mainly by Muslim Arabs. In the northern third of the country there are significantly fewer people; the largest ethnic group here is toubou, but there are other berber people in the area as well. Apart from places where local conditions play a role, such as in the Tibestib Mountains, rainfall in the north is very limited and irregular, and both humans and animals are therefore very dependent on the available water resources in the periodic streams (wadis), oases and wells. Animal husbandry, especially with camels, is of the utmost economic importance; it is supplemented by a modest agricultural production in oases and at the sources in Tibesti.
Most of the other economic activity takes place in the cities, where there is a modest craft and industrial production. The main industrial branches process cotton and refine sugar. Production has been limited by the uncertain electricity supply from the country’s two oil-powered power plants. For long periods it has been difficult to import sufficient quantities of oil due to the turmoil in the country and currency shortages; with the recently started oil production in southern Chad there is a prospect of a change in this situation.
The service sector employs more than the industry, but it is not well developed either. because the modest development of the infrastructure presents major problems for transport and trade. Therefore, a substantial part of the foreign aid funds go to improve the transport network. Due. the country’s location in the middle of the continent without ports, it has been economically unprofitable to utilize less resources. But discoveries of oil at Doba in the southern part of the country have raised high expectations. In 2003, commercial extraction of an American-led consortium began, and a pipeline to the port city of Kribi, Cameroon, over 1,000 km long has been built. On the other hand, there seems to be long prospects for tourism expansion, although Chad has had a number of hunting tourists for several years, mainly due to extremely limited control of the hunt.
Chad language
Chad Languages, Official languages are French and Standard Arabic. Among the approximately 100 different languages speak the majority of the population Central and East Sudanese languages, including the Saharan language kanuri, which is spoken by approximately 200,000, while Chadian-Arabic, akin to Sudanese-Arabic, is spoken by approximately 800,000; Central Sudanese and Fulani are spoken by smaller groups. For culture and traditions of Chad, please check allunitconverters.
- Countryaah: Do you know how many people there are in Chad? Check this site to see population pyramid and resident density about this country.
