Chad elections:
Chad, a landlocked country in Central Africa has experienced many challenges in past decades, and as elections have already been completed, many worry about the already fragile situation worsening. Since the assassination of Idriss Déby, who was the 6th President of Chad and ruled between 1990 and 2021, his son Mahamat Idriss Déby followed his father’s footsteps and became a Chadian politician and military officer and ruled since 2021. Presidential elections took place in May 2024, with a majority of votes (61%) going to Mahamat Déby, despite him already being in power; this raised some questions both internally and externally about fraud and corruption, though no evidence has been presented so far. Meaning Mahamat Deby will be in power until his term finishes in 2030, unless something drastic occurs.
Chad history and current situation:
Chad has a history of French colonialism, like Haiti, see edition 8. So, resources such as oil and gold benefitted other countries while Chad, suffered. Well supposedly up until 1960, when Chad became independent. However, that still didn’t stop state and non-state actors’ (rebel militias)) intervention and Chad still hosts French Military Bases to combat rebels to this day. Similarly in the region, Chad has neighbouring countries which are facing civil wars, countries like Sudan, Central African Republic, and Cameroon resulting in an influx of refugees and displaced people approximated at almost around one million. That’s one million more people to look after. One million people from different cultures, who speak different languages, who are burdening Chad’s fragile public services. Also to note, 700,000 refugees came in the last 10 months (Feb 2024) and with a weak but heavy reliance (85%) on the agriculture industry currently afflicted by droughts and lack of crop yields, what will Mahamat do?
Chad's economy:
With a GDP of around 12.7 billion USD in 2022, Chad ranks 31/47 in Sub-Saharan Africa with a heavy dependency on Oil Exports while neighbouring countries, excepting the Central African Republic, remain poor highlighting the link between some countries being landlocked and poverty. Almost 1/3 of African countries are landlocked, and most contain precious resources and commodities which other stakeholders (mining companies) exploit. Chad has a government debt of 48.8% of GDP so around 6.2 billion USD, which puts further strains on government expenditure, and raises questions about how can a country like Chad pay off these debts, or is external support the more likely option?
Chad ranks 162/180 on the corruption Perception Index, this is particularly prevalent in government deals with mining firms where firms make awry deals with government officials in return for lucrative contracts, this not only occurs in Chad but countries throughout Africa and the Sahel.