SUMMARY
MOSANAT (Mouvement pour le salut national du Tchad, or Movement for the National Salvation of Chad) was and 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. In the 1960s and early 1970s, FROLINAT (Front de Liberation Nationale du Tchad, National Liberation Front of Chad) was the primary rebel organization in Chad. As FROLINAT fractionalized following internal divisions in the early 1970s, its many splinter factions continued to fight the Chadian government, and each other. In June 1982, Hissène Habré and his Armed Forces of the North (Forces armées du nord, FAN) seized government power from President Goukouni Oueddei and the “National Transitional Union Government” (Gouvernement d'Union Nationale de Transition, or GUNT), which had been established in 1979 following the signing of the “Lagos Accord” by 11 Chadian armed factions. Despite direct military intervention by Libya in support of anti-government armed groups (including GUNT and CDR), Habré was able to solidify his hold on power through the 1980s. It was in this context that MOSANAT emerged.
MOSANAT was created in 1986 in order to overthrow Chadian President Hissène Habré, and to create a “just state” in Chad. Reflecting Chad’s persistent north-south divide, MOSANAT - which claimed to represent the Hadjerai ethnic group from the south-central Guéra prefecture - was also aggrieved by the high taxation and exactions by Habré’s “northern-dominated” government. The creation of the group had been preceded by a general deterioration in the relationship between Chadian authorities and the Toubou ethnic group from northwestern Chad on one hand, and the Hadjerai ethnic group on the other. The Hadjerai had previously supported Habré (himself from the Gorane-Toubou group), and had comprised a large share of the FAN’s fighting forces during its 1976-82 insurgency. After Habré assumed power in 1982, many Hadjerai continued to serve in the Chadian National Armed Forces (Forces Armées Nationales Tchadiennes, commonly known as “FANT”). However, by 1984, Hadjerai officials were losing positions of power within the government and armed forces to members of Gorane-Toubou and Zaghawa ethnic groups. During the mid-1980s, President Habré had grown increasingly weary of potential threats against his rule, resulting in an increased reliance on his native Gorane group to fill security functions; this also led to increased repression against other ethnic groups, including the Hadjerai. Following arrests of several Hadjerai officials and a series of incidents involving Toubou and Hadjerai soldiers, MOSANAT was launched in the Guéra prefecture. Maldoum Bada Abbas, an army lieutenant and former prefect of Guéra, led MOSANAT, which was estimated to have around 3000 fighters in 1989.
By 1987, MOSANAT had been forced to leave Guéra and regroup in neighboring Sudan’s Darfur region. While the UCDP has not recorded it as formal secondary support from Sudan to MOSANAT, the group was still able to use Sudanese territory to stage attacks in Chad in 1989. MOSANAT cooperated with remnants of the defunct GUNT rebel organization, which had also sought refuge in Sudan. Furthermore, MOSANAT absorbed fighters that had defected from the CDR, following the decision by CDR leader Acheikh ibn Oumar to rejoin the government of President Habré.
In March 1990, MOSANAT merged with several other Chadian rebel factions, including the Revolutionary Forces of 1 April, to create the MPS (Mouvement patriotique du salut, or Patriotic Salvation Movement). After this, MOSANAT ceased to exists as a separate actor in the UCDP data.
