Editing History of Chad (section)

==Tombalbaye era (1960&ndash;1975)==
{{main|Tombalbaye government|Chadian Civil War (1965–1979)}}

One of the most prominent aspects of Tombalbaye's rule to prove itself was his authoritarianism and distrust of democracy. Already in January 1962 he banned all political parties except his own PPT, and started immediately concentrating all power in his own hands. His treatment of opponents, real or imagined, was extremely harsh, filling the prisons with thousands of political prisoners.

Furthermore, he pursued constant discrimination against the central and northern regions of Chad, where the southern Chadian administrators came to be perceived as arrogant and incompetent. This resentment at last exploded in a tax revolt on September 2, 1965, in the [[Guéra Prefecture]], causing 500 deaths. The year after saw the birth in [[Sudan]] of the [[FROLINAT|National Liberation Front of Chad]] (FROLINAT), created to militarily oust Tombalbaye and the Southern dominance. It was the start of a bloody civil war.<ref>{{cite book| last1 = Brachet| first1 = Julien| last2 = Scheele| first2 = Judith| title = The Value of Disorder : Autonomy, Prosperity, and Plunder in the Chadian Sahara| publisher = Cambridge University Press| date = 2019| location = Cambridge| pages = 91–105| doi = 10.1017/9781108566315| isbn=9781108566315| s2cid = 181557618}}</ref>

Tombalbaye resorted to calling in French troops; while moderately successful, they were not fully able to quell the insurgency. Proving more fortunate was his choice to break with the French and seek friendly ties with Libyan [[Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution|Brotherly Leader]] [[Muammar Gaddafi|Gaddafi]], taking away the rebels' principal source of supplies.

But while he had reported some success against the rebels, Tombalbaye started behaving more and more irrationally and brutally, continuously eroding his consensus among the southern elites, which dominated all key positions in the army, the civil service and the ruling party. As a consequence on April 13, 1975, several units of N'Djamena's [[gendarmerie]] [[Chadian coup of 1975|killed Tombalbaye during a coup]].