Geointelligence Network

Chad Neighbours

K. Guérin - GEO212 - France

A. Boulay - GEO212 - France

Chad is a landlocked country and has a very small national economic market. Hence any time you think about development issues, the relationship with its neighbours is important. When Chad exports or imports goods, it has to rely on foreign countries, ports, roads and railroads. Oil exportation decisions will need pipeline creation across neighbouring countries. The building of a refinery or any large factory will be economically sound only if a neighbour country economic market adds to the local market.

The Republic of Chad is surrounded by Libya to the North, Sudan to the East, Central African Republic to the Southeast, Cameroon and Nigeria to the Southwest, and Niger to the Northwest. We will study all those countries. But if we add the Sudanese situation and its impact and the possibility to create new export routes for oil, we have to add two additional countries in the analysis: Kenya and Uganda. Those countries represent 32% of the continent, or of its population.

AOI_sansfrontieres

10 COUNTRIES AT A GLANCE

Sudan, Chad and Niger are most of the largest countries of Africa after Algeria. Nigeria is the most populated country of Africa.
Latest statistics (march 2013) :

		Cameroon	C.A.R.	Chad	Kenya	Libya
Area		475 440 km²	622 984 km²	1 284 000 km²	580 367 km²	1 759 540 km²
Population*		20 129 878	5 057 208	10 975 648	43 013 341	5 613 380
Density		42 inhab/km²	8.1 inhab/km²	0.9 inhab/km²	74 inhab/km²	3.2 inhab/km²
Creation date		1960	1960	1960	1963	1951
Administrative division*		10 regions	16 prefectures, 1 commune (Bangui)	22 regions	7 provinces	22 districts
Refugees and IDP (2012/01)**		103 671	199 903	497 735	921 827	713 587
Population below poverty line***		39.9% (2007 est.)	62% (2008 est.)	55% (2003 est.)	45.9% (2005 est.)	NA (> 30%)
Ibrahim Index (2011)****		45	33	31	53	50
GDP (2012 est.)***		25.24 billion $	2.2 billion $	9.5 billion $	33.6 billion $	62.4 billion $
GDP sectors (2012 est.)***	Primary	19.8%	56.4%	51%	24.2%	2%
	Secondary	30.9%	14.9%	7%	14.8%	40.1%
	Tertiary	48.3%	28.8%	42%	61%	57.9%
Resources		Petroleum, Bauxite, Iron ore, Timber, Hydropower	Diamonds, Uranium, Timber, Gold, Oil, Hydropower	Petroleum, Uranium, Natron, Kaolin, Fish (Lake Chad), Gold, Limestone, Sand and gravel, Salt	Limestone, Soda ash, Salt, Gemstones, Fluorspar, Zinc, Diatomite, Gypsum, Wildlife, Cattle, Hydropower	Natural Gas, Petroleum, Gypsum
Land Use (2005)***	Arable land	12.5%	3.1%	2.8%	8.0%	1.0%
	Crops	2.5%	0.2%	0.02%	0.9%	0.2%
	Other	84.9%	96.7%	97.2%	91.0%	98.8%
Coastline		402 km	0 km	0 km	536 km	1 770 km
Climate		Semiarid to equatorial	Tropical to equatorial	Desertic to tropical	Semiarid to Tropical	Mediterraneen to desertic
Elevation		4 095 m	1 420m	3 415m	5 199m	2 267m
Elevation		Mt Cameroon	Mt Ngaoui	Emi Koussi	Mt Kenya	Bikku Bitti

		Niger	Nigeria	South Sudan	Sudan	Uganda
Area		1 267 000 km²	923 768 km²	644 329 km²	1 867 484 km²	241 038 km²
Population*		16 344 687 inhab	170 123 740 inhab	8 260 490 inhab	22 796 000 inhab	33 640 333 inhab
Density		12.9 inhab/km²	184 inhab/km²	12.8 inhab/km²	12.2 inhab/km²	139.5 inhab/km²
Creation date		1961	1960	2011	1956	1962
Administrative division*		8 regions includes 1 capital district (Niamey)	36 states, 1 Federal Capital Territory (Abuja)	10 states	15 states	111 districts, 1 city (Kampala)
Refugees and IDP (2012/01)**		425	10 335	666 178	2 898 246	288 519
Population below poverty line***		59.7 % (2007 est.)	70% (2010 est.)	50.6% (2009)	46.5% (2009 est.)	24.5% (2009 est.)
Ibrahim Index (2011)****		44	41	33		55
GDP (2012 est.)***		6 billion $	244 billion $	19.2 billion $	64.1 billion $	16.8 billion $
GDP sectors (2012 est.)***	Primary	39.6%	30.9%	32%		23.9%
	Secondary	17.1%	43.1%	25%		26.1%
	Teriary	43.2%	26%	43%		49.9%
Resources		Uranium, Coal, Iron ore, tin, Phosphates, Gold, Molybdenum, Gypsum, Salt	Natural gas, Petroleum, Iron ore, Tin, Coal, Limestone, Niobium, Lead, Zinc, Arable land	Petroleum, Iron ore, Copper, Chromium ore, Zinc, Tungsten, Mica, Silver, Gold, Diamons, Timber, Limestone, Arable land, Hydropower	Petroleum, small reserves of Iron ore, Copper, Chromium ore, Zinc, Tungsten, Mica, Silver, Gold, Hydropower	Copper, Cobalt, Hydropower, Limestone, Salt, Arable land, Wildlife, Gold
Land Use (2005)***	Arable land	11.4%	33.0%	NA	NA	21.5%
	Crops	0.0%	3.1%	NA	NA	8.9%
	Other	88.5%	63.9%	NA	NA	69.0%
Coastline		0 km	853 km	0 km	853 km²	0 km
Climate		Desertic to tropical	Semiarid to equatorial	Tropical to equatorial	Desrtic to semi-arid	Tropical to equatorial
Elevation		2 022m	2 419m	3 187m	3 042m	5 110m
Elevation		Mt Bagzane	Chappal Waddi	Kinyeti	Djebel Marra	Margherita Pk

* CIA World FactBook
** UNHCR, "Statistical Snapshot"
*** The World Bank
**** Mo Ibrahim Foundation

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

The climate is desert in north of the area (Libya, Niger, Chad, Sudan), and equatorial in the south (Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya). The rainy season stretches from May to October due to the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) moving to the south of the area.

East Africa is defined by the Great Rift Valley which created mountains, such as Mount Kenya (5 199m, 6 highest point of the area), and lakes, such as Lake Victoria. In the western part, major rivers flow towards the Atlantic Ocean (Niger and Benoue in Nigeria, Oubangui in CAR, Sanaga in Cameroon. In the east, the Nile (White Nile and Blue Nile) is the dominant river. Chad is a peculiar case as its two main rivers, Logone and Chari, flow from the southeast into Lake Chad. Apart from those main rivers, following rains water may flow through depressions called wadis.

ECONOMY AND TRANSPORTATION

Regional trade is promoted by a lot of multilateral economic organizations. Since the 1960’s, organizations have multiplied, creating different influence areas, with different level of economic & monetary integration: customs union, common market, development plan, free trade area, common currency...

Subsistence agriculture is generally the major sector, or remains a large sector of those countries' economy (and certainly the activity for most of the people).

The extraction industry is very important: Uranium in Niger (Arlit), and soon in CAR (Bakouma), Oil & Gas in Nigeria, Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, Cameroon and Chad (and very soon in Uganda), diamonds and gold in CAR.

Cameroon, Libya and Nigeria have strong industrial sectors (Cameroon relies on its great hydroelectric power to process aluminium (Edea)). Only Nigeria, Libya and Kenya have very developed services (Kenya being an important touristic destination).

In terms of telecommunication, the fixed-line phone had never succeeded in penetrating in Africa, because it needs a lot of equipements and maintenance, as for internet. But the mobile developement is incredible: the lowest penetration rates in Africa (like in Chad or Niger) are around 30%; but a lot of countries goes over 50%.

The road network is quite heterogeneous. In Chad, Sudan, Niger, Uganda and C.A.R. it is not well developed, and only a small part is asphalted or paved (generally less than 10%). Libya, Sudanes, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon have a well developed railroad system. Chad, Libya, Niger and C.A.R. have no railway. In Nigeria the road and railroad networks are deteriorated but the government has begun to rectify the situation by repairing the roads and privatizing the Nigerian Railway Corporation.
Chad, Uganda and C.A.R. have only one international airport. Sudan and Niger have 2 international airports, Libya, Kenya and Cameroon have 3, and Nigeria has 4.
Major rivers of each country are navigable. An inland port at Kimusu serves the Lake Victoria.

Road network

DEMOGRAPHICS

The area of interest has 320 million inhabitants in 10 countries. The major part of this population lives southern of the Sahel belt, which crosses Niger, Chad and Sudan. Urban population is concentrated in a few major cities. The largest city is Lagos (10 404 112 inhabitants) in Nigeria, the second largest is Nairobi (3 476 632 inhabitants) in Kenya and the third largest is Douala (2 446 945 inhabitants) in Cameroon.

Nairobi_downtown Nairobi_slums

Nairobi : city center and slums

There are more than 500 distinct ethnic groups present in the ten countries. English, Arabic and French are the official languages and Islamic, indigenous beliefs and Christian the dominant religions depending on the country.

ethnies

Ethnic groups

The United Nations Human Development Index ranks Chad and its neighbours among the world least advanced countries. All these countries experiment low life expectancy at birth, literacy rate, GDP per capita and low life expectancy. In rural communities, most children do not attend school. In Niger, nearly three-quarters of the population cannot read or write, and in rural areas, 90 percent of women are illiterate.

HDI_2011