Chad

Women

Chad ranks 160 out of 162 countries in the Gender Inequality Index, where a high rank equals high equality. Women should always be considered as a particularly vulnerable group though.

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Children

Chad has a Workplace Index score of 6.9, a Marketplace Index score of 5.2 and a Community and Environment Index score of 7.9 in the Children’s Rights and Business Atlas, where countries receive scores between 0 and 10. A score closer to 0 reflects a need for basic children’s rights due diligence, while a higher score reflects a need for enhanced or heightened due diligence. Children should always be considered as a particularly vulnerable group though. 

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Persons with Disabilities

Due to differences in data collection and definitions it is difficult to compare countries on disability prevalence rates. Persons with disabilities should always be considered as a particularly vulnerable group though.

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Minorities and Indigenous Peoples

According to the World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, the main ethnic groups in Chad are Sara (Ngambaye/Sara/Madjingaye/Mbaye) 30.5 %, Kanembu/Bornu/Buduma 9.8 %, Arab 9.7 %, Wadai/Maba/Masalit/Mimi 7 %, Gorane 5.8 %, Masa/Musseye/Musgum 4.9 %, Bulala/Medogo/Kuka 3.7 %, Marba/Lele/Mesme 3.5 %, Mundang 2.7 %, Bidiyo/Migaama/Kenga/Dangleat 2.5 %, Dadjo/Kibet/Muro 2.4 %, Tupuri/Kera 2 %, Gabri/Kabalaye/Nanchere/Somrai 2 %, Fulani/Peulh/Fulbe/Bodore 1.8 %, Karo/Zime/Peve 1.3 %, Baguirmi/Barma 1.2 %, Zaghawa/Bideyat/Kobe 1.1 %, Tama/Assongori/Mararit 1.1 %, Mesmedje/Massalat/Kadjakse 0.8 %, other Chadian ethnicities 3.4 %, Chadians of foreign ethnicities 0.9 %, foreign nationals 0.3 %, unspecified 1.7 %. Although believed to be more numerous, Southerners were dominated by Arab northerners under the presidencies of Hissène Habré and Idriss Déby. Chad is divisible into three agro-climatic zones. First, the northern ‘BET’ (Borkou, Ennedi, Tibesti) area of the Sahara, accounting for over a third of Chad’s territory, is home to only about 6 % of its population. Two nomadic peoples, collectively known as Toubou, make up virtually all its population; Teda people, concentrated near Tibesti in mountainous reaches of the far north; and Daza (in Arabic: Gorane) peoples, concentrated further south and east. The ethnic roots of Hissène Habré, Chad’s ruthless strongman from 1979 to 1990, are in a small eastern Gorane sub-group. Second, the arid Sahelian scrublands of the middle belt account for over half of Chad’s territory and somewhat less than half its population. They are home to nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples whose livelihoods depend largely on livestock, as well as sedentary peoples dependent on farming, fishing and trade. The nomadic population was in 2009 estimated at 3.5 % of the population. The nomadic population has in recent years had a very low growth rate – a situation that it speculated might be due to sedentarization as a result of drought and declining living standards. Like the peoples of the BET, virtually everyone in this zone is Muslim. In the Ouaddai prefecture bordering Sudan to the east, Zaghawa peoples (who make up a little over 1 % of Chad’s population) have been salient in recent history. Zaghawa make up much of the feared Republican Guard, an army unit answerable to the president, and responsible for much of the brutality and bloodshed of the 1990s. Chad’s president from 1990 to 2021, Idriss Déby, was of the Bidéyat people, who are a sub-clan of the Zaghawa. A significant proportion of Chad’s population (25–30 %) adhere to Arab customs and, notwithstanding centuries of intermarriage with African peoples, consider themselves Arabs. About 13 % speak Chadian Arabic, a creole of Arabic, French and local languages, as a first language and 40 % as a second language; a majority of Chadians comprehend Arabic.

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Migrant Workers​

According to the ILO Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers, migrant workers as a proportion of all workers is 3 % in the subregion Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Persons in Armed Conflict

Chad ranks 7 out of 179 countries in the Fragile States Index, where a high rank equals high fragility. For monthly crisis updates, check out CrisisWatch.