SUMMARY
MDD (Mouvement pour la démocratie et le development, or Movement for Democracy and Development) 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). Habré successfully fought against several armed groups (including GUNT and CDR) and ruled Chad until December 1990, when he was ousted by MPS, led by Idriss Déby. Following this, Déby became President of Chad and was able to solidify his hold on power, despite continued challenges from several armed groups. It was in this context that MDD emerged.
Factions loyal to ex-President Hissène Habré, who had been ousted in December 1990, created MDD on 15 October 1991. The MDD’s primary constituent factions were FAO (Forces armées occidentales, or Western Armed Forces) and ex-soldiers from Habré’s Chadian National Armed Forces (Forces Armées Nationales Tchadiennes, commonly known as “FANT”). FAO was an offshoot of the “Third Liberation Army”, which itself was a splinter faction of Goukouni Oueddei’s FAP created by fighters from the Kanemnu ethnic group. In an illustrative display of Chad’s fluent allegiance patterns, the FAO had been part of the anti-Habré GUNT alliance during the early 1980s, only to switch its support to Habré in 1991. The principal founders of MDD were Goukouni Guet, a Habré loyalist, and FAO leader Moussa Medella; it remained unclear if Habré himself took active part in the creation and leadership of MDD. Even if the MDD was viewed as “Habré loyalist”, the primary goal of the group was to overthrow the new Chadian President Idriss Déby, and not necessarily reinstall Habré.
Goukouni Guet led MDD until he was arrested in Nigeria in early 1992, and subsequently extradited to Chad. Following Goukouni’s arrest, Moussa Medella led the MDD core group. At least during the early years of MMD’s existence, Adoum Yacoub – a veteran of the Chadian insurgency who had been part of both FAP and GUNT, as well as Habré’s FANT – appears to have been one of the group’s top military commanders. Few reliable estimations of MDD’s total cadre strength existed, but it was reported that the group had around 3000 fighters in 1991; this number appears to have decreased to 500-1000 in 1992. While the UCDP has not been able to conclude that the MDD received any external support, the group launched its first attacks in the Lake Chad region from across the Chad-Nigeria border; this implies that MDD may have had bases in Nigeria.
Reflecting the high levels of factionalism in Chad, MDD suffered several internal splits. Already in 1992, infighting erupted between MDD’s core group (sometimes referred to as “MDD-FAO”, as it was led by Medella) and a splinter faction called MDD-FANT, which was comprised mainly of ex-FANT soldiers. There appears to have at least some reconciliation between these two factions in the following years, but Moussa Medella claimed that the MDD-FANT faction still existed in some form as late as 1998. The next major split occurred in August 1995, as a Habré-loyal faction led by Ibrahim Malla Mahamt left the MDD. Furthermore, a splinter referring to itself as the “group of Patriots” defected from MDD to the Government of Chad.
On 3 July 1999, MDD and the Government of Chad signed the “Reconciliation Agreement” in Khartoum, Sudan. As part of this agreement, a general amnesty was given to MDD members, and provisions were taken to reintegrate the rebels into to the government administration and army. While some MDD officials rejected the agreement, it was supported by group leader Moussa Medella; UCDP has nor recorded any active dyad involving MDD after 1999.
