A largely semi-desert country, Chad is rich in gold and uranium and stands to benefit from its recently-acquired status as an oil-exporting state.

However, Africa's fifth-largest nation suffers from inadequate infrastructure and internal conflict. Poverty is rife, and health and social conditions compare unfavourably with those elsewhere in the region.

OVERVIEW

Chad's post-independence history has been marked by instability and violence stemming mostly from tension between the mainly Arab-Muslim north and the predominantly Christian and animist south.In 1969 Muslim dissatisfaction with the first president, Ngarta Tombalbaye - a Christian southerner - developed into a guerrilla war. This, combined with a severe drought, undermined his rule and in 1975 President Tombalbaye was killed in a coup led by another southerner, Felix Malloum.

Mr Malloum, too, failed to end the war, and in 1979 he was replaced by a Libyan-backed northerner, Goukouki Oueddei. But the fighting continued, this time with a former defence minister, Hissen Habre, on the opposite side.

In 1982, with French help, Mr Habre captured the capital, N'Djamena, and Mr Oueddei escaped to the north, where he formed a rival government. The standoff ended in 1990, when Mr Habre was toppled by the Libyan-backed Idriss Deby.

By the mid-1990s the situation had stabilised and in 1996 Mr Deby was confirmed president in Chad's first election.

In 1998 an armed insurgency began in the north, led by President Deby's former defence chief, Youssouf Togoimi. A Libyan-brokered peace deal in 2002 failed to put an end to the fighting.

From 2003 unrest in neighbouring Sudan's Darfur region spilled across the border, along with hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees. They have been joined by thousands of Chadians who are fleeing rebel fighting as well as violence between ethnic Arab and ethnic African Chadians.

Chad and Sudan accuse each other of backing and harbouring rebels, and the dispute led to severing of relations in 2006. However, since then, progress has been made towards normalising ties, with the two countries' presidents meeting for the first time in six years in 2010.

Chad became an oil-producing nation in 2003 with the completion of a $4bn pipeline linking its oilfields to terminals on the Atlantic coast. The government has moved to relax a law controlling the use of oil money, which the World Bank had made a condition of its $39m loan.

President: Idriss Deby

President Deby: Inaugurated multi-party constitution

Idriss Deby, who came to power in a coup, won a third term in presidential elections in May 2006, gaining 77.5% of the vote.

The main opposition parties, who accused the president of corruption and refused to field any candidates, rejected the result. Polling went ahead despite a rebel assault on the capital three weeks before election day.

The president has also been beset by splits within his Zaghawa ethnic group and by defections and desertions in the military.

He survived a bid to topple him in April 2006, when rebels attacked the capital.

Rebels again stormed the capital in February 2008, but they were beaten back by government forces backed by French warplanes and troops offering logistics, intelligence and protection.

Idriss Deby was born in Fada, in north-east Chad, in 1952. A career army officer, he helped Hissen Habre topple Goukouki Oueddei in 1982.

In 1989 he fled to Sudan after being accused of plotting a coup. A year later his Patriotic Salvation Movement drove Mr Habre into exile and in 1991 Mr Deby was proclaimed president.

He won Chad's first post-independence presidential election in 1996 after overseeing the introduction of a multi-party constitution. He was re-elected in 2001.

In 2005 voters supported constitutional changes allowing Deby to stand for a third term.

Delayed presidential elections have been scheduled for April 2011.

MEDIA

Overview Facts Leaders Media

Radio is the main means of mass communication, but state control of the broadcast media allows few dissenting views.

State-run Radiodiffusion Nationale Tchadienne operates national and regional radio stations. Around a dozen private radio stations are on the air, despite high licensing fees. Some of them are run by non-profit groups. These broadcasters are subject to close official scrutiny.

The only television station, Teletchad, is state-owned and its coverage favours the government.

Private newspapers critical of the government circulate freely in the capital, N'Djamena, but have little impact among the largely rural and illiterate population.

The press

Le Progres - daily

N'Djamena Hebdo - private weekly

L'Observateur - private weekly

Le Temps - private weekly

Notre Temps - private weekly

Television

Teletchad - state-owned

Radio

Radiodiffusion Nationale Tchadienne (RNT) - state-owned

FM Liberte - private, owned by a group of human rights organisations

La Voix du Paysan - Catholic station

Radio Arc-en-ciel - Catholic station

Dja FM - Chad's first private radio station

Al-Nassr - private

Chad authorities arrested four senior former Chadian rebels on their return to the country's Capital of Ndjamena, government and rebels said.The arrested officials included General Taher Guinassou, a former security advisor to Chad's President Idriss Deby, who went to be vice president of the UFDD rebels and Tahir Wodji who was a senior commander and in the UFDD and a broader rebel alliance.