Desert Coup

Another Islamic upheaval

Political turmoil spawned by the Islamic revival is not confined to the Middle East. It has also flared in central Africa. In Chad, a desert-poor, sparsely populated (4 million) former French territory, 2 million Muslims who live mostly in the north have long chafed against the central government, which is dominated by black Christians from the south. A sputtering, 14-year-old war between the two sides ebbed last year after President Felix Malloum, a black who seized power in a 1975 coup, appointed a Muslim rebel leader, Hissene Habre, Premier. But last week fierce fighting between 1,000 guerrillas under Habre's command and Malloum's army erupted in Ndjamena, Chad's capital. Malloum's forces were routed, and he sought the protection of the 2,400-member French force garrisoned in Chad since early 1978.

At week's end a shaky cease-fire arranged by the French had taken hold. Malloum was reportedly holed up in a bunker at Ndjamena airport, where French troops were standing guard. At least four French citizens and a pilot for an American oil company had been killed in the fighting. Some 4,000 white residents, including many of the 230 Americans in Chad, hastened to the airport to board evacuation flights.

Though the capital appears to be in Habre's hands, his hold on power is scarcely secure. The northern two-thirds of Chad remains under the control of the Libyan-backed Chad National Liberation Front (FROLINAT). Habre headed the front until last year, when he broke with Libya after its President, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, seized another chunk of northern Chad.

Last summer the French arranged a reconciliation between Malloum and Habre. But the two men quarreled over sharing power under the proposed constitution. Said a French source: "There's no questioning Malloum's integrity; he prefers a camp bed to a palace. But he is a hopeless politician. Habre was named Premier, but he remained a guerrilla. There was complete incompatibility between the two men."

To outsiders, there does not seem to be much in Chad worth fighting about. Carved out of former French Equatorial Africa, it is impoverished, plagued by drought, malaria and periodic locust swarms. Its only known resource is a uranium deposit far in the north. Perhaps it is Chad's poverty (annual per capita income: $120) that makes its religious and ethnic rivalries so fierce. With so little to go around, each side must fight all the harder to obtain a life-sustaining share. qed

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