Non-state actors in Chad: Turning natural partners into effective allies
This series of briefs is designed to facilitate an exchange of information on the role played by non-state actors (NSAs) in implementing the Cotonou Partnership Agreement between the ACP and the EC. Their aim is to cite examples of innovative practices and to demonstrate the challenges facing NSAs as development partners in different countries.
Chad has suffered decades of civil strife and foreign intervention since its independence in 1960. The instability and violence has stemmed mostly from tensions between the Arab-Muslim north and the Christian south and from border disputes with neighbouring countries. President Idriss Déby of the Patriotic Salvation Movement rose to power in 1990 through a coup d'état. In 1996 he oversaw the inauguration of a multiparty constitution and, in 1997, he won the country's first presidential election. Despite movements towards democratic reform, power remains in the hands of a northern ethnic oligarchy.