SUMMARY
FNT (Front national tchadien, or Chad National Front; alternatively known as Front de libération du Ouaddai/Ouaddai Liberation Front, FLO) 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 (Mouvement patriotique du salut, or Patriotic Salvation Movement), 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 FNT emerged.
FNT, or at the very least a precursor to the group, was created by Mahamat Nour Adam Barka in the Ouaddai region at some point in the early 1980s. Barka had been part of the administration of President Goukouni Oueddei’s “National Transitional Union Government” (GUNT). During a cabinet reshuffle in 1982, Barka was listed as a member of FAP, which before 1979 had been the rebel organization led by Goukouni Oueddei. It was thus likely that Barka created FNT after the GUNT government was ousted in June 1982, but this was not possible to confirm; it was also unclear if Barka personally, or FNT as a group, ever was part of the GUNT rebel organization. The first confirmed independent militant activity by FNT was when it at some point in 1992 launched an insurgency to overthrow President Idriss Déby; some sources also state that the group sought to establish an independent Islamic state in the Ouaddai region.
By 1994, Haris Bachar and Ibrahim Zahab were the nominal leaders of FNT; however, most of the tactical leadership appears to have been exercised by individual “bande chiefs”, which were local commanders relatively autonomous from any centralized command. FNT’s total cadre strength in the early 1990s was said to be around 1000, and the group was mainly comprised of Ouaddai residents, as well as member of the Zaghawa ethnic group from both Chad and Sudan. FNT was primarily active in the Ouaddai region, but to some extent also in other parts of central and eastern Chad. The group also maintained a presence on Sudanese territory, at least during 1992; however, it is unclear if Sudanese soil was used as a rear base from which the group could stage cross-border attacks, and also if FNT were staying in Sudan with the Sudanese government’s consent. The group may also have received financial support from “popular committees” in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Nigeria, and Benin; there was no indication that this support was sanctioned by any external government.
Like many other Chadian armed groups, the FNT suffered several internal splits. For example, in 1994, a faction led by Mahamat Souboune defected from the core group and signed a ceasefire with the government of Chad. Another split occurred in 1996, when a faction created its own group called FNT-Renové (FNTR). The militant activities of the FNT core group appears to have subsided after 1994, and in 1995 some sources indicated that the group had begun a process to transform itself into a political party. In 1997, FNT and the Government of Chad signed the “National Reconciliation Agreement”, which included provision for the integration of rebel fighters into the national armed forces, and the transformation of FNT into a political party.
