{"id":2180,"date":"2019-03-26T10:49:11","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T10:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/?p=2180"},"modified":"2019-03-26T10:49:17","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T10:49:17","slug":"rebel-incursion-exposes-chads-weaknesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/?p=2180","title":{"rendered":"Rebel Incursion Exposes Chad\u2019s Weaknesses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An early February incursion by the Union of Resistance Forces (UFR) into Chad from Libya was halted by French air strikes, conducted in coordination with the Chadian army. This most severe security threat for several years highlights the weakness of the country and President Idriss D\u00e9by\u2019s rule.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 3-6 February 2019, at the request of N\u2019Djamena, planes from the French Operation Barkhane proceeded with a series of strikes<\/a> against a group of Chadian rebels in the north east of the country. According to rebels\u2019 spokesperson Youssouf Hamid Ishagh, the Union of Resistance Forces (Union des forces de la r\u00e9sistance \u2013 UFR), a coalition based in Libya, intended to reach the capital N\u2019Djamena in order to overthrow President Idriss D\u00e9by and \u201cset up a transitional government uniting all of the country\u2019s forces\u201d. The plan was aborted following the French intervention. Composed mainly of Zaghawa fighters from D\u00e9by\u2019s own ethnic community, this rebel movement is directed by Timan Erdimi, the president\u2019s nephew, who lives in Qatar. He first tried to overthrow his uncle in 2008, and again in 2009 after forming the UFR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a statement released by the Chadian army on 9 February 2019, \u201cmore than 250 terrorists, including four leaders\u201d were captured, and over forty of their vehicles destroyed. These figures were refuted by Ishagh, who described them as fanciful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paris defended its intervention, conducted \u201cin response to a request from Chadian authorities<\/a>\u201d, and justified it by the need to preserve stability in both Chad and the sub-region. The French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian declared in front of parliament on 12 February that \u201cFrance intervened militarily to prevent a coup d\u2019Etat\u201d. French authorities added that Chad is a strategic ally whose army is deployed in operations against terrorism in the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the link with Chad\u2019s domestic context?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By asking France\u2019s military forces to intervene on his territory for the first time since 2008, President D\u00e9by showed that he took the risk very seriously. This is due to a domestic situation marked by growing social upheaval, but also to burgeoning dissent within his own ethnic community, which the rebels hope to exploit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more on International Crisis Group<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An early February incursion by the Union of Resistance Forces (UFR) into Chad from Libya was halted by French air strikes, conducted in coordination with the Chadian army. This most severe security threat for several years highlights the weakness of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[58,380,252,537,454,723],"class_list":["post-2180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-africa","tag-chad","tag-france","tag-governance","tag-military-intervention","tag-rebel-groups"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2181,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180\/revisions\/2181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}