<text><span class="style42"></span><span class="style12">CHAD</span><span class="style14"></span><span class="style42">Official name:</span><span class="style13"> La République du Tchad (The Republic of Chad)</span><span class="style42">Member of: </span><span class="style13">UN, OAU</span><span class="style42">Area: </span><span class="style13">1284000 km2 (495752 sq mi)</span><span class="style42">Population: </span><span class="style13">6118000 (1993 est)</span><span class="style42">Capital: </span><span class="style13">N’Djamena 688000 (1992 est)</span><span class="style42">Other major cities: </span><span class="style13">Sarh 130000, Moundou 118000 (1992 est)</span><span class="style42">Languages: </span><span class="style13">French and Arabic (both official); over 100 local languagesReligions: </span><span class="style42">Sunni Islam (50%), animist (25%)</span><span class="style13"></span><span class="style42">GOVERNMENT</span><span class="style13">Following a military coup in 1991, a transitional government system was introduced in 1993 when a national conference chose a 57-member Higher Transitional Council.GEOGRAPHY</span><span class="style42"></span><span class="style13">Deserts in the north include the Tibesti Mountains, where the highest point – Emi Koussi – reaches 3415 m (11204 ft). Savannah and semidesert in the center slope down to Lake Chad. The Oubangui Plateau in the south is covered by tropical rain forest. </span><span class="style42">Climate: </span><span class="style13">Chad is hot and dry in the north, and tropical in the south.</span><span class="style42">ECONOMY</span><span class="style13">Chad – one of the poorest countries in the world – has been wracked by civil war and drought. With few natural resources, it relies on subsistence farming, exports of cotton and on foreign aid. </span><span class="style42">Currency: </span><span class="style13">CFA franc.</span><span class="style42">HISTORY</span><span class="style13">Part of the medieval African empire of Kanem-Bornu, the area around Lake Chad became French in the late 19th century. The French conquest of the north was not completed until 1916. Since independence in 1960, Chad has been torn apart by a bitter civil war between the Muslim Arab north and the Christian and animist Black African south. Libya and France intervened forcefully on several occasions, but neither was able to achieve its aims. In 1987, an uneasy ceasefire was declared, but, following another civil war, military regimes took power in 1990 and 1991 and unrest continues.</span></text>