Oil and Corruption: The Focus of Chadian Power Struggle

A Jeune Afrique interview with Chadian opposition leader Yusuf Togoimi, released Monday to several news services ahead of the magazine's publication, indicates that the noose may be tightening around Chad's current leadership. Togoimi told Jeune Afrique by telephone that he would capture N'Djamema, Chad's capital, by the end of the year.

The claim represents a significant development in the low-grade civil war being fought between government forces loyal to President Idriss Deby and various opposition groups. Togoimi, Deby's former defense minister who formed the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT) after being placed under house arrest in 1997, draws largely upon Toubou ethnic support in northern Chad. But according to Agence France Presse (AFP), his movement has been welcomed by other opposition groups such as the Movement for Democracy and Development (MDD), based in the southwest around Lake Chad, and the National Front for the Renewal of Chad (FNTR), based in the eastern region of Ouaddai. The MDJT surrounded the Tibetsi desert oasis town of Bardai in northern Chad on May 27 and is waiting for it to surrender, while the FNTR clashed Monday with government troops in the east, according to AFP.

Deby rose to power in 1990 by overthrowing Chad's former government in a French-backed coup. Togoimi says that Deby at first enjoyed popular support but that positive sentiment for various rebel factions grew as "his regime ... became authoritarian and notoriously corrupt," according a recent statement Togoimi made to AFP. A 1998 Amnesty International report on Chad accuses the government of extra-judicial executions, torture and ill treatment and detainment of political opponents without charge. Togoimi additionally accuses the President of election fraud.

For his part, President Deby has gone to some length to downplay the precarious position of his government. He only recently (in March) recognized the very existence of the MDJT and he still denies that the rebels pose any significant threat to his rule, calling Togoimi's movement a "small group of 40 people holed up in the Tibetsi [desert]," according to a March 11 U.N. Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) report.

Deby is slow to admit that rebel forces have made gains and he attributes any successes on their part to the complicity of neighboring countries such as Niger and Libya. He has also been careful to silence dissenting political opinion that would undermine his authority. Most recently, Chadian legislator Yorongar Ngarlejy, who accuses Deby of accepting bribes from oil companies interested in exploiting Chad's petroleum reserves via a proposed Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline, was served with a 3-year jail sentence for libel.

One possible reason for Deby's feigned ignorance of domestic dissent could be Deby's dealings with Exxon, Shell and Elf Aquitaine, all of which are eager to tap oil fields in southern Chad. It's just common sense that foreign investment is allergic to domestic upheaval, and it would only be in Deby's best interest to show that he is firmly in control of his country.

Many dissenters, such as Ngarlejy, are afraid the project will only benefit Deby's family and increase the level of government corruption and clampdowns on opposition. Already there are several indications that the proposed pipeline, which is expected to provide 70 percent of the country's revenues, is "already escalating existing conflicts," according to a September 1998 Corporate Watch report. According to a 1998 U.S. State Department report on patterns of global terrorism, one such conflict flared on March 22, 1998, when the FNTR took eight Europeans hostage. It demanded an end to the presence of French troops and Western oil firms in Chad. Also in March of 1998, Corporate Watch reported that Chadian security forces massacred 100 unarmed civilians in the oil-rich region of Doba in what many believe was oil-related violence.

As oil interests cause stakes to rise in Chad's ongoing power play, President Deby seems to be becoming less tolerant of opposition and more sensitive concerning the international image of his country's stability. But Deby has every reason to be concerned, as the major oil firms backing the pipeline project (which has been in the works since 1993) need the World Bank's blessing on the project for it to move forward successfully.

Togoimi's claim of the government's imminent defeat, if comes to fruition, would be a devastating blow to Deby's already emasculated image and his near-term plans for oil industry development in Chad. It would therefore not be unexpected for Deby to throw all his efforts into defeating the rebel forces. But such a course of action could further alienate him from a population suffering from one of the world's lowest standards of living.

Zakariya Wright is a staff writer at iviews.com