Chad

N'Djamena serves as the political, cultural and economic heart of Chad, positioned in Middle Africa. As the seat of government and often the most populous city, it concentrates the country's main institutions, universities and cultural landmarks. Beyond the capital, major cities include Moundou, Sarh — each a hub of regional culture, economy and history. N'Djamena sits at the confluence of the Chari and Logone rivers at Chad's southern tip — a Sahel capital in a country spanning the Saharan north and the sub-Saharan south, where the same city contains camel markets, French colonial administrative buildings, and modern Chinese-built infrastructure in a juxtaposition that tells Chad's entire economic history.

With a population of approximately 17.4M, Chad is a vibrant society with a rich mix of traditions and communities. The principal languages spoken are French, Arabic, which reflect the country's cultural heritage and open doors to a wide international community. Internationally, Chad is reached via the dialling code +235. Chadians navigate identity across 200 ethnic groups and the fundamental north-south geographical divide between the Muslim Saharan and Sahelian north and the Christian and animist sub-Saharan south — a division that has driven civil conflict since independence in 1960 and whose management has required the country's military leaders to build coalitions across cultural lines.

Chad spans 1,284,000 km², in the Middle Africa subregion of Africa. Geographically centred around 15.0°N, 19.0°E, the country offers a diverse range of landscapes shaped by its location, climate and geology. Road traffic follows the right-hand rule, in line with surrounding Africa convention.

The official currency is the Central African CFA franc (Fr), used for everyday transactions and commerce throughout the country. Chad's economy is shaped by its geography, natural resources and trade relationships. Business and daily life operate under UTC+01:00, aligning the country with its regional neighbours.

Football holds a special place in the heart of Chad's national identity. Football is Chad's dominant modern sport, but the traditional wrestling tradition (Laamb-style for southern communities, camel racing for northern Tubu and Arab groups) represents the athletic cultures that predate colonialism — wrestling competitions at harvest festivals serving as both sporting contest and marriage market where athletic achievement confers social status.

The highest point in Chad is Emi Koussi, rising to 3,415 metres above sea level. Lake Chad was once the sixth-largest lake in the world; it has shrunk by 90% since the 1960s due to climate change, population pressure, and irrigation extraction — a crisis affecting 30 million people who depend on its waters, visible from satellite as one of the most dramatic man-environment interactions on Earth and cited by scientists as the clearest African evidence of climate change's human consequences.