🇹🇩 Chad

Chad is a vast, landlocked Sahelian country of 17 million people with a GDP of about $12 billion. Lake Chad, once one of Africa's largest lakes, has shrunk by 90% since the 1960s — from 25,000 to about 1,500 square kilometers — creating an ecological and humanitarian crisis affecting 30 million people across four countries. Oil production began in 2003 and now dominates the economy, though the benefits have been unevenly distributed. N'Djamena, the capital, sits at the confluence of the Chari and Logone rivers. Chad has been a key Western ally in the fight against Boko Haram and Saharan jihadist groups.

Oil accounts for about 80% of export revenue, with the US and China as the main buyers. Cotton and livestock are the traditional exports. Agriculture employs about 80% of the population but contributes only 20% of GDP. Chad is one of the most aid-dependent countries in the world, and the World Bank has classified it as being in debt distress. Infrastructure is minimal — the country has fewer than 1,000 km of paved roads.

Chad's Ennedi Plateau in the Sahara contains some of the most spectacular rock art in Africa — thousands of paintings and engravings dating back 7,000 years, depicting a time when the Sahara was green. The Tibesti Mountains in northern Chad contain the highest peak in the Sahara at 3,445 meters. Chad is one of the hottest countries on earth, with temperatures regularly exceeding 45°C.

Chad's strategic military importance keeps aid flowing, but the combination of climate change, oil dependency, and governance challenges makes the outlook grim. Lake Chad's disappearance is a slow-motion catastrophe.