Tibesti Region () is a

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

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 far northwest of the country. Its capital is Bardaï. It was created in 2008 when the former Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Region was split into three, with the Tibesti Department becoming the Tibesti Region. The region is named for the Tibesti Mountains, one of the most prominent mountain chains in the

Sahara Desert The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

. Tibesti is the least populated region of Chad, and also has the lowest GDP in the country.

History

Ancient history

The rock paintings and engravings in Tibesti bear witness to an ancient civilization from 25,000 BC. There are rock engravings in the area of Zouar, featuring, among others, cows eating fresh grass, attesting to the wet past of the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

. The area has historically been mainly inhabited by the Toubou people.

Age of Colonisation

In 1869, Gustav Nachtigal was sent by Prussian Chancellor

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...

to contact the Sultan of Bornu, and was the first European to travel the Tibesti region from Zouar to Bardaï. Condemned by the traditional assembly of the Toubou to capital punishment for espionage, he appealed, but this was rejected. He was only released upon the intervention of Maï Arami Tetimi. Upon his return to Germany he published the book ''Sahara and the Sudan'' detailing his experiences. The capital, Bardaï, was invaded by the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

in 1908, and by 1911 they had 60 men and 6 cannons in the town. The area fell under French rule during the

Scramble for Africa The Scramble for Africa was the invasion, conquest, and colonialism, colonisation of most of Africa by seven Western European powers driven by the Second Industrial Revolution during the late 19th century and early 20th century in the era of ...

in the late 19th century. Prior to 1931 much of the region belonged to what is now Niger as part of the

French West Africa French West Africa (, ) was a federation of eight French colonial empires#Second French colonial empire, French colonial territories in West Africa: Colonial Mauritania, Mauritania, French Senegal, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guin ...

colony.

First Chadian Civil War

Claustre Affair

in 1974, during the First Chadian Civil War, rebels led by Toubou nationalist Hissène Habré captured French archaeologist

Françoise Claustre Françoise Claustre (8 February 1937 – 3 September 2006), was a French archaeologist. Life and career Claustre was taken hostage by a group of Chadian rebels, led by Hissène Habré, on 20 April 1974, at Bardaï, in the Tibesti Mountai ...

, Marc Combe (also French), an assistant to Mrs. Claustre's husband, and Christoph Staewen, a German physician. Stray bullets killed Staewen's wife. The trio were captured near Bardaï in the desert of the Tibesti Region. Combe later escaped and Staewen was released after a ransom was paid by the German government. Combe would later write a book about his experiences, ''Otage au Tibesti''. Rebels also established a radio station in Bardaï called "Voice of the Liberation of Chad", also known as Radio Free Bardaï. An opposition leader, Goukouni Oueddei, established a base in the Tibesti region in the early 1980s with

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

n military backing. In December, 1986, Habré attacked the Libyans in the Tibesti region around Bardaï.

Post-war

In the late 2000s-early 2010s

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

was discovered in the region, prompting a gold rush which has brought much insecurity to the region. In September 2019 about 30 people died following the collapse of an illegal gold mine in Kouri Bougoudi.

2021 offensive

An offensive from the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) rebel group began in the region on the day of the 2021 Chadian presidential election. On 20 April, President

Idriss Déby Idriss Déby Itno ( '; 18 June 1952 – 20 April 2021) was a Chadian politician and military officer who was the sixth List of heads of state of Chad, president of Chad from 1991 until his death in 2021 during the 2021 Northern Chad offensive, No ...

was killed while visiting the frontlines of the conflict, the country's borders has been shut as a result of this.

Geography

The Tibesti Region borders the Murzuq District in

to the north,

Borkou Region The Borkou region () is a province of Chad which was created in 2008 from the Borkou department of the former Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region. Its capital is Faya-Largeau. Geography Borkou is located in the Sahara Desert, and contains parts o ...

to the east, and Diffa and Agadez Regions in

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

to the west. The most northerly of Chad's regions, it is sparsely populated, being part of the

. It contains parts of the Tibesti Mountains, and also part of the Erg of Bilma, a vast area of sand dunes in the centre of the desert. The region's northern border lies within the

Aouzou Strip The Aouzou Strip (; , ) is a strip of land in northern Chad that lies along the Chad–Libya border, border with Libya, extending south to a depth of about 100 kilometers into Chad's Borkou, Ennedi Ouest, Ennedi Est, and Tibesti regions for an a ...

, historically a point of dispute between

and

.Geoffrey Leslie Simons, ''Libya and the West: from independence to Lockerbie'', Centre for Libyan Studies (Oxford, England). Pg. 57

Settlements

The regional capital is Bardaï; other major settlements include Aouzou, Goubonne, Wour, Zouar and Zoumri.

Demographics

The region had a population of 25,483 at the time of the 2009 Chadian census. The main ethnolinguistic group is the Tedaga Toubou.

Subdivisions

The region of Tibesti is divided into two

departments Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military * Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

References

{{Authority control States and territories established in 2008 Regions of Chad