National and Nomadic Guard

The National and Nomadic Guard of Chad (Garde Nationale et Nomade du Tchad or GNNT) is one of four defence and security forces in Chad. (The others are the Army, the Gendarmerie and the Police). Article 200 of the Constitution of 1996 states that the duties of the GNNT are the protection of politicians and government officials, guarding government buildings, the maintenance of order in rural areas, and guarding prisons and prisoners.^[1]

Even though the Constitution adds, in Article 201, that the GNNT must "respect the liberties and rights of man"^[2] when exercising its functions, the GNNT has been accused of perpetrating serious Human Rights violations, as reported by Amnesty International. Following the murder of a corporal of the GNNT, the suspect in the case was extrajudicially executed on November 17, 1996 by the GNNT.^[3]

The GNNT is under the control of the Minister for Territorial Administration, unlike the Army and the Gendarmerie, which come under the responsibility of the Minister of Defence. The GNNT is since May 24, 2006 commanded by the Brigadier General Mahamat Saleh Brahim, cousin of the President Idriss Déby.^[4]

The GNNT was first known in the 1960s as the Territorial Guard, but was early renamed in the decade Nomad and National Guard, and carried out much the same duties it does today, that is providing security for officials, government buildings, and regional government posts.^[5] Differently from today, the GNN was then dominated by Southerners, with only 250 Toubou. This also explains the resentment that brought in 1968 to the destruction of the GNN garrison of Aozou and the mutiny of the Toubou units, forming la Deuxième Armée of the FROLINAT. Notwithstanding this setback the President François Tombalbaye showed much more trust in the GNN than in the army, increasing by 1971 its effectives to at least 3,500 men, commanded by Camille Gourvenec, a French officer that was also the Director of Information Services (i.e., the espionage).^[6] Gourvenec's deputy was Pierre Galopin.

When the Chadian Civil War extended itself to the Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti in 1968, the GNN found itself increasingly on the frontline against the insurgents. The final showdown among the inurgency and the Chadian Armed Forces came in 1977–78, when Goukouni Oueddei, leader of a faction of the FROLINAT, conquered all the government's strongholds in northern Chad, inflicting staggering losses to the armed forces; the CNN in particular was heavily decimated in early 1978 when Goukouni took Fada and the capital of the Bourkou-Ennedi-Tibesti, Faya-Largeau. This practically brought to the end of the GNN, until it was revived shortly before 1996 by the current President Idriss Déby.^[7]

Notes

1. ^ "Constitution de la République du Tchad". 1996. http://www.cefod.org/Fichiers%20web/Constitution%20Tchadienne.html. 
2. ^ Ibid.
3. ^ "Chad - Hope betrayed". Amnesty International. 1997. http://web.amnesty.org/library/pdf/AFR200041997ENGLISH/$File/AFR2000497.pdf. 
4. ^ "Deby réorganise son armée et prépare la guerre". Tchad Actuel. 2006. http://www.tchadactuel.com/dotclear/index.php?2006/05/20/389-deby-reorganise-son-armee-et-prepare-la-guerre. 
5. ^ "A Country Study: Chad". Library of Congress Country Studies. 1990. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+td0121). 
6. ^ Henderson, David H. (1984). "Conflict In Chad, 1975 To Present: A Central African Tragedy". Global Security. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1984/HDH.htm. 
7. ^ R. Buijtenhuijs (1981). "Guerre de guérilla et révolution en Afrique noire : les leçons du Tchad". Politique Africaine. http://www.politique-africaine.com/numeros/pdf/001023.pdf.