SUMMARY
MPS (Mouvement patriotique du salut, or Patriotic Salvation Movement) 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 MPS emerged.
MPS was formed in March 1990 following the merger of several Chadian rebel factions, including MOSANAT, the Revolutionary Forces of 1 April, FAT-MRP (Forces Armées Tchadiennes-Mouvement Révolutionnare du Peuple, or Chadian Armed Forces-People's Revolutionary Movement), and a small group of Arabs led by Rakhis Mannany. While MPS was formed by several Chadian factions, it was clearly dominated by Idriss Déby, the former commander-in-chief of the Chadian National Armed Forces (Forces Armées Nationales Tchadiennes, commonly known as “FANT”). Déby had launched the Revolutionary Forces of 1 April to oust the Government of Chad, led by President Hissène Habré, already in 1989, and the formation of the MPS was the next step towards achieving this goal. Since Déby led both 1 April movement and MPS, the two groups likely had the same stated goal, namely the establishment of a just and democratic Chadian society free from tribalism.
Several of MPS’ constituent groups, such as Déby’s forces and MOSANAT, were former supporters of President Habré. For example, Déby had been a top military commander within FAN, and his Zaghawa ethnic group had supplied fighters and soldiers to Habré. Similalry, MOSANAT claimed to represent the Hadjerai ethnic group, which up until at least 1984 had supported Habré, suppling fighters both to FAN and FANT. FAT-MRP was mainly comprised of inhabitants from the Ouaddai region. However, as Habré grew increasingly weary of challenges against his rule, positions of power within his government and army were concentrated to members of his own Gorane-Toubou ethnic group. Not only did this mean that non-Gorane groups suffered a relative loss of power, but both the Zaghawa and Hadjerani – among others – were subjected to outright repression.
As indicated above, Idriss Déby – who was known as a brilliant military strategist following his many victories during FAN’s 1976-1982 uprising and during the Chad-Libya conflict – was the top leader of MPS. Other prominent leaders included Maldoum Bada Abbas from MOSANAT, and the FAT-MRP leaders Djibrine Dassert and Nadjita Beassoumal. While it was not possible to establish an precise estimation of MPS’ total cadre strength, it was believed that the group had 1500 - 5000 fighters in 1990. Already in 1989, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had offered Déby support in overthrowing Habré. Thus, in 1990 Libya provided the MPS with considerable material, logistic, and economic support; for example, it was estimated that 40 percent of the weapons used by MPS came from Libya. Sudan also provided secondary non-warring support to the group by allowing it to use Sudanese territory to maintain bases and stage attacks against the Government of Chad.
On 2 December 1990, MPS captured the Chadian capital N’Djamena and thus became the new Government of Chad. Consequently, Déby became the new president of Chad, and the MPS was eventually transformed into the ruling political party. After this date, MPS thus ceased to exist as a non-state actor in the UCDP data.
