SUMMARY

The Islamic Legion was and armed group active in the Chadian intrastate armed conflict over government until 1990. 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. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the most prominent insurgent group in Chad was FROLINAT (Front de Liberation Nationale du Tchad, National Liberation Front of Chad). Even as FROLINAT fractionalized in the early 1970s, its various splinter factions continued to fight against the Chadian government, and against each other. Libya, which had territorial claims against Chad, became increasingly involved in the conflict, and even fought its own war against the Chadian government in the 1970s and 1980s. By 1982, an anti-Libyan rebel organization called FAN, led by Hissène Habré, had seized government power in Chad. This led to an escalation of Libya’s involvement in Chadian conflict, which included several armed interventions against the Habré-led Government of Chad. It was in this context that the Islamic Legion emerged in Chad.

The Islamic Legion was originally set up by Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 1972 to serve as a vehicle for his “pan-Arab” ambitions, and the eventual establishment of a unified Islamic state in North Africa. The Islamic Legion was initially part of the regular Libyan forces that provided secondary warring support to various Chadian conflict actors, such as GUNT. Following a series of Libyan military setbacks, Gaddafi formally disbanded the Islamic Legion in 1987. However, the group continued to be active as a separate non-state group, which became active for the first time in UCDP data in 1989, as it clashed with Chadian government forces along the Chad-Sudan border. It was indicated that Gaddafi still had authority over the group, and that its purpose was to destabilize Chad. For example, the Islamic Legion cooperated with the Chadian rebel organization MPS, which sought to overthrow Chadian President Hissène Habré. The Islamic Legion’s Chadian force was comprised of foreign workers residing in Libya and Chadian residents in areas controlled by Libya in the mid-1980s. The group probably had access to 1500-2000 fighters in 1989 and 1990, even if some estimates put its total strength at 5000.

The group received secondary non-warring support from both Sudan and Libya, as it could use the territory of both countries to organize its operations in Chad. The Islamic Legion made particularly frequent use of Sudan’s western Darfur province, from which it launched attacks across the Chadian border.