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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Oil and War in Chad
| Panel |
50. The new scramble for Africa
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| Paper ID | 765 |
| Author(s) |
Massey, Simon
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | External interest in Chad has intensified following the discovery and exploitation of oil reserves in the south of the country. Despite originally accepting a stringent framework devised by the World Bank intended to ensure that the profits from the dividend would be distributed to priority development sectors, oil wealth has failed to improve the parlous conditions of life endured by the population. Likewise oil has only exacerbated the country's ethnic and religious divisions and the increased opportunities for embezzlement impelled President Idriss Deby Itno's determination to amend the Constitution in order to remain in office. The current precarious situation is further aggravated by the conflict unfolding in eastern Chad which is the result both of violent contagion from the war in the neighbouring Sudanese province of Darfur and a growing rebellion by former allies of Deby Itno based in Sudan and supported by Khartoum. As well as Sudan's involvement in Chad, the paper investigates the role of international state actors and organisations with particular emphasis on the impact of oil. With the oil on stream Deby Itno unilaterally rewrote the World Bank's loan agreement and outfaced both the bank and the consortium operating the project led by US giant ExxonMobil. Although France, the former colonial power has no direct involvement in the oil project, it maintains a significant military presence for strategic reasons and as a matter of prestige and its military power has prevented the regime's defeat by the rebels. Aside from its intrinsic interest in the oil sector, the US considers Chad strategically important in the global 'war on terror' and has conducted counter-terrorism training for the Chadian army. Continued French and American involvement in Chad is, to an extent, predicated on anxieties generated by China's resource-driven expansionism in sub-Saharan Africa. China has significant investments in the Sudanese oil industry. There was circumstantial evidence that Chinese supplied weapons were being diverted by the Sudanese government to the Chadian rebels in Darfur. N'Djamèna has since switched its diplomatic allegiance from Taipei to Beijing. The possibility of a redirection of Chad's oil assets towards Beijing either under Deby Itno or potentially a pro-Khartoum successor cannot be discounted. |
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