SUMMARY
FARF (Forces armées pour la République fédérale, Armed Forces of the Federal Republic) emerged as one amongst the almost countless number of Chadian rebel groups opposing the regime of Idriss Deby during the 1990s. Deby himself had come into power in December 1990 after a bloody conflict against the President Hissèn Habré who had been ruling the country through a brutal regime since 1982. There is an immense ethnic diversity within the country, 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. This animosity was further reinforced by a negligent French colonial administration and even if the conflict has evolved to surpass the simplified north-south dichotomy, it remains at the core of the conflict and can still be used by opportunistic politicians.
A major objective of FARF was to introduce federalism in Chad, which was in opposition to the government’s emphasis on a unitary state structure. FARF manly advocated federalism as an attempt to break the Muslim-dominated, northern hegemony in Chad under Habré’s and Deby’s rule. The federalist aspirations of FARF became even more salient for the government considering the fact that FARF had its base in the country’s southern prefectures of Logone Orientale and Logone Occidentale, a region where oil had been discovered. FARF’s demands for increased decentralisation and federalism thus posed a veritable threat to one of the government’s profitable sources of income. Moreover, there was an ethnic dimension to FARF’s opposition against the government. Most of FARF’s members were Kanembu, which is the major ethnic group in southern Chad, while Deby belongs to the northern-based Zakhava clan.
FARF first entered the scene in August 1994 when they clashed with government forces in Moundou, leaving five government soldiers and four rebel fighters dead. In December the same year, the leader of the group, Laokein Barde, gave an interview stating FARF’s conditions for entering into negotiations with the Chadian government. These were (1) all petroleum companies wishing to exploit Chads oil resources had to put pressure on the government to introduce a true rule of law, (2) all Sudanese citizens who had helped President Idriss Deby take power in 1990 had to return home, (3) talks had to be held under international supervision, (4) Chad had to withdraw from the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and (5) the form of the state and the question of bilingualism, acknowledging the country’s diversity in languages, had to be submitted to a referendum.
FARF reportedly dissolved after signing two agreements with the government in 1997 and 1998. About 300 former FARF fighters were integrated into the Chadian army and FARF merged with Deby’s Patriotic Salvation Movement. Those not agreeing with the signing of the agreement went underground.
The leader of FARF, Laokein Barde, had been part of another rebel movement in Chad, CSNPD (Conseil de salut national pour la paix et la démocratie, Committee of National Revival for Peace and Democracy) before establishing FARF. He left CSNPD after the group had signed an agreement with the government that Barde opposed. The whereabouts of Laoke in Barde remain unknown. Some reports state that he was killed in fighting prior to the signing of the second agreement in April 1998, when Ngarbaroum Djeramian took over FARF’s leadership. However, other sources state that Barde went into exile abroad.
FARF has been involved in the intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
