Chad is dividit intae three major geographical regions: a desert zone in the north, an aridSahelian belt in the centre an a mair fertileSudanesesavanna zone in the sooth.Lake Chad, efter which the kintra is named, is the lairgestwetland in Chad an the seicont lairgest in Africae. Chad's heichest peak is theEmi Koussi in theSahara, anN'Djamena, (formerlyFort-Lamy), the caipital, is the lairgest ceety. Chad is hame tae ower 200 differentethnic anlinguistic groups. Arabic an French are the offeecial leids.Islam anChristianity ar the maist widely practiced releegions.
Beginnin in the 7t millennium BC, human populations muivit intae the Chadian basin in great nummers. Bi the end o the 1st millennium BC, a series o states an empires rose an fell in Chad's Sahelian strip, each focused on controllin thetrans-Saharan trade routes that passed throu the region. Fraunce conquered the territory bi 1920 an incorporated it as pairt oFrench Equatorial Africae.
In 1960 Chad obtained unthirldom unner the leadership oFrançois Tombalbaye. Resentment towards his policies in the Muslim north culminatit in the eruption o a lang-lastinceevil war in 1965. In 1979the rebels conquered the caipital an put an end tae the sooth's hegemony. Housomeivver, the rebel commanders focht amangst thairsels tillHissène Habré defeatit his rivals. He wis owerthrown in 1990 bi his generalIdriss Déby. Recently, theDarfur crisis in Sudan haes spilt ower the mairch andestabilised the naition, wi hunders o thoosans o Sudanese refugees livin in an aroond camps in eastren Chad.
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