SUMMARY
UFR (Union des Forces de la Résistance, or Union of Forces for the Resistance) was an alliance comprising several armed group active in the Chadian intrastate armed conflict over government. Since it gained independence from France in 1960, Chad has been hard-hit by armed conflict. The country has been characterized by an immense ethnic diversity, and these divisions have been exacerbated by a tradition of factionalism. Historically, there has been animosity between the mainly Muslim north and the more Christian and animist south. Another prominent feature of the Chadian conflicts has been a strong regional dimension, as particularly Libya and Sudan have had strong influence on Chad’s conflict dynamics. Following almost 25 years of internal strife, involving a plethora of rebel groups, Idriss Déby and his MPS ousted President Hissène Habré in December 1990, and was able to solidify his hold on power, despite continued challenges from several armed groups. President Déby’s rule was characterized by ethnic favoritism, particularly of his native Zaghawa, which made him deeply resented by many non-Zaghawa ethnic groups, but also among his own kin. It was in this context that UFR emerged.
UFR was created on 19 January 2009, when eight Chadian rebel factions agreed to form an alliance. The formation of UFR was one of several attempts to create a unified national resistance movement in Chad. In many ways, UFR was created as a direct consequence of the failure of Chad’s latest rebel alliance, the Alliance Nationale (AN), which had both formed and disintegrated in 2008. The Chadian rebel groups that agreed to form UFR were RAFD, UFDD, UFDD-Fondamentale, CDR, FPRN, UFCD (Union des forces pour le changement et la démocratie, or Union of Forces for Change and Democracy), FSR (Front pour le salut de la république/Front for the Salvation of the Republic), and UDC (Union démocratique pour le changement/Democratic Union for Change). It was stated that the primary goal of the UFR was “the liberation of the Chadian people and to overthrow the dictatorship”, which implied the ousting of President Idriss Déby. Reflection the widespread dissatisfaction with President Déby’s ethnic favoritism, UFR included groups that represented a wide range of Chad’s communal groups, such as the Gorane-Toubou (represented by UFDD), the Arab population (UFDD-Fondamentale, CDR and FSR), the Ouaddaian population (UFCD and FPRN), and also President Déby’s own Bideyat-Zaghawa clan (RAFD, which even included members of the president´s immediate family).
Timane Erdimi was the top leader (“president”) of UFR. Erdimi, a member of the Bideyat-Zaghawa clan and nephew of President Déby, was also the leader of RAFD, and had been a top commander of AN in 2008. However, Erdimi’s position within UFR was contested, mainly because of an existing rivalry between his RAFD and UFDD, led by Mahamat Nouri. Nouri, who had led the AN in 2008, refused to be subordinated to Erdimi, as he saw himself as the legitimate leader of any unified Chadian opposition front. As leader of UFDD, Nouri was a central actor within UFR; however, it has not been possible to establish his formal position within the alliance. Other important leader of the group were “Secretary General” Abakar Tollimi (high-ranking leader in UFDD), “First Vice-president” Adouma Hassaballah Djadareb (leader of UFCD, former high-ranking commander in both FUCD and UFDD), “Second Vice-president” Abdelwahid Aboud Makaye (leader of UFDD-Fondamentale), “chief-of-staff” Tahir Wodji (ex-UFDD), and “Defense Secretary” Tahir Guinassou.
It was estimated that UFR had around 2600 fighters in 2009; the strongest faction within the alliance was Djadareb’s UFCD faction, which had around 1500 fighters, most of which came from the Ouaddai group. It is also worth noting that the UDC faction, led by Abderahman Koulamallah, was a primarily political grouping, and thus provided few, if any, fighters to UFR. The group was primarily active in eastern Chad, along the Sudanese border; UFR also maintained a presence in the western and northern parts of Sudan’s Darfur region.
UFR was also part of a wider regional conflict context, and received considerable amounts of secondary support from the Government of Sudan in 2008. At the time, the Chadian and Sudanese governments were embroiled in what has been referred to as a “proxy war”, with both N’Djamena and Khartoum supplying rebel factions along the Chad-Sudan border. As a part of this dynamic, Sudan supplied UFR with considerable amounts of weapons and other materiel, as well as logistic support. In general, Sudan exerted more influence of Chadian rebel groups, than Chad did over Sudanese groups. For example, it was suggested that the Government of Sudan played an instrumental role in Erdimi’s appointment as UFR leader; the reason for this was the assumption that Erdimi could inspire more defections from the Chadian armed forces. It was also suggested the Government of Sudan attempted to use the UFR to fight against Sudanese rebels, such as JEM. However, as many top UFR leaders had ethnic ties to JEM (both groups included members from the Zaghawa/Beri ethnic group), the Chadian alliance refused to fight as “mercenaries” in Sudan.
Like many Chadian rebel organizations, UFR suffered from severe internal fragmentation. The most serious rift was caused by the aforementioned rivalry between Erdimi and Nouri, which in May 2010 prompted the latter to leave UFR. Following his departure from UFR, Nouri created Alliance nationale pour le changement démocratique (ANCD, National Alliance for Democratic Change.) He was joined by some UFDD members – mainly those from his own UFPD faction – as well as CDR and FSR; it is however worth noting that many UFDD members opted to remain with UFR. Furthermore, internal disagreements forced “Secretary General” Tollimi to leave UFR, which caused the defection of commander-in-chief Wodji and several hundred fighters from the alliance; while Wodji’s initial intention had been to join Tollimi, he instead opted to defect to the Government of Chad. In early 2010, FPRN, led by Adoum Yacoub “Kougou”, left the UFR alliance and initiated its own conflict against the Government of Chad.
During 2010, the relations between Chad and Sudan improved, which caused the Sudanese government to decrease its support to Chadian rebel groups. For example, joint Sudan-Chad border patrols limited the ability of Chadian rebel groups to cross to Chad from Darfur, and UFR’s leadership was expelled from Sudan to Doha. In October 2010, around 2000 UFR fighters still loyal to Erdimi agreed to disarm, with only small factions opting to maintain its armed opposition.
