December 22, 2025: Last month in the southwest, three dozen people were killed and many more wounded during several clashes between farmers and herders. Overgrazing has forced the herders to move into areas where farmers grow crops. Some of the farmers and many of the herders are armed and this has led to a growing number of deadly clashes. Last June the United States banned Chadian citizens from entering the country. In retaliation Chad halted the issuance of travel visas for Americans seeking to visit Chad.

Chad is a landlocked nation in North Africa that shares a border with Libya, Sudan, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger. While 55 percent of the 19 million population is Moslem, 41 percent are Christian. Chad is poor, with a GDP per capital of $700. This is one of the five lowest in the world. From 1900 to 1960 Chad was a French colony. Unlike other French colonies in Africa, not much was done to modernize Chad’s economy and infrastructure. After 1960 Chad was ruled by a few dictators and regularly ravaged by civil wars. After 1990 democracy took root and there have been several elections since then. Chad has even become a major supplier of peacekeepers throughout Africa, especially in Nigeria against Boko Haram.

Unfortunately, some ambitious projects have been stymied by unrest elsewhere in the region. For example, Egypt planned to build a highway from Egypt to Chad. The route would include 2,570 kilometers of highway through Libya. But fighting in Libya and the nearby Darfur region of Darfur have made construction impossible. When and if this highway is completed, it would rejuvenate the economies of every area it passed through. Meanwhile, refugees from the fighting in Sudan continue to arrive in Chad, seeking refuge.