N'Djamena , population 721,000 (2005), is the capital city of
ChadChad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
. It is also the largest city in the country. A
port||-||-||-||-||-||-||-||-|}A port is a facility for receiving ships and/or transferring cargo. It is usually found at the edge of an ocean, sea, river, or lake. The best ports have deep water in channels or berths, and protection from the wind and waves...
on the
Chari RiverThe Chari or Shari River is a 949-kilometer-long river of central Africa. It flows from the Central African Republic through Chad into Lake Chad, following the Cameroon border from N'Djamena, where it joins the Logone River waters....
, near the confluence with the Logone River, it directly faces the
CameroonThe Republic of Cameroon is a unitary republic of central and western Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the Bight of...
ian town of
KoussériKousséri is a city in Far North Province, Cameroon, lying on the border with Chad, across the Chari River from N'Djamena. It is the capital of the Logone-et-Chari department. It is a market town and is growing extremely fast. It had a population of 76,200 in 2001. Estimated population 2007:...
, to which the city is connected by a bridge. It is also a
special statute region||The country of Chad is currently divided into 18 regions. From independence in 1960 until 1999 it was divided into 14 prefectures. These were replaced in 1999 by 28 departments...
, divided in 10
arrondissementAn arrondissement is an administrative division in France, most of the nations which were its former colonies in Africa and some other French-speaking nations, as well as in Belgium and the Netherlands.-France:...
s. It is a regional
marketA market is any one of a variety of different systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby persons trade, and goods and services are exchanged, forming part of the economy. It is an arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to exchange things...
for
livestockLivestock are one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food or fiber, or labor...
,
saltA salt, in chemistry, is an ionic compound, and can result from the neutralization reaction of acids and bases. Salts are ionic compounds composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
, dates, and
grainCereals, grains or cereal grains, {as a collective} are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their fruit seeds - the endocarp, germ and bran...
s.
MeatMeat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs, livers, skin, brains, bone marrow, kidneys, or lungs...
processing is the chief industry.
N'Djamena was founded as
Fort-Lamy by
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
commander
Émile GentilÉmile Gentil was a French colonial administrator, naval officer, and colonial military leader.Born at Volmunster in the department of Moselle, he later attended the École Navale, the school that formed French naval officers. As an ensign, he was assigned to conduct hydrographic soundings along the...
on May 29 1900, and named after
Amédée-François LamyAmédée-François Lamy was born at Mougins, in the French département of Alpes-Maritimes on February 7 1858 and died in the battle of Kousséri on April 22 1900....
, an army officer who had been killed in the
Battle of KoussériThe battle of Kousséri originated in French plans to occupy the Chari-Baguirmi region. In 1899–1900, the French organized three armed columns, one proceeding north from Congo, one east from Niger and another south from Algeria...
a few days earlier.
N'Djamena , population 721,000 (2005), is the capital city of
ChadChad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
. It is also the largest city in the country. A
port||-||-||-||-||-||-||-||-|}A port is a facility for receiving ships and/or transferring cargo. It is usually found at the edge of an ocean, sea, river, or lake. The best ports have deep water in channels or berths, and protection from the wind and waves...
on the
Chari RiverThe Chari or Shari River is a 949-kilometer-long river of central Africa. It flows from the Central African Republic through Chad into Lake Chad, following the Cameroon border from N'Djamena, where it joins the Logone River waters....
, near the confluence with the Logone River, it directly faces the
CameroonThe Republic of Cameroon is a unitary republic of central and western Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the Bight of...
ian town of
KoussériKousséri is a city in Far North Province, Cameroon, lying on the border with Chad, across the Chari River from N'Djamena. It is the capital of the Logone-et-Chari department. It is a market town and is growing extremely fast. It had a population of 76,200 in 2001. Estimated population 2007:...
, to which the city is connected by a bridge. It is also a
special statute region||The country of Chad is currently divided into 18 regions. From independence in 1960 until 1999 it was divided into 14 prefectures. These were replaced in 1999 by 28 departments...
, divided in 10
arrondissementAn arrondissement is an administrative division in France, most of the nations which were its former colonies in Africa and some other French-speaking nations, as well as in Belgium and the Netherlands.-France:...
s. It is a regional
marketA market is any one of a variety of different systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby persons trade, and goods and services are exchanged, forming part of the economy. It is an arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to exchange things...
for
livestockLivestock are one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food or fiber, or labor...
,
saltA salt, in chemistry, is an ionic compound, and can result from the neutralization reaction of acids and bases. Salts are ionic compounds composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
, dates, and
grainCereals, grains or cereal grains, {as a collective} are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their fruit seeds - the endocarp, germ and bran...
s.
MeatMeat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs, livers, skin, brains, bone marrow, kidneys, or lungs...
processing is the chief industry.
History
N'Djamena was founded as
Fort-Lamy by
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
commander
Émile GentilÉmile Gentil was a French colonial administrator, naval officer, and colonial military leader.Born at Volmunster in the department of Moselle, he later attended the École Navale, the school that formed French naval officers. As an ensign, he was assigned to conduct hydrographic soundings along the...
on May 29 1900, and named after
Amédée-François LamyAmédée-François Lamy was born at Mougins, in the French département of Alpes-Maritimes on February 7 1858 and died in the battle of Kousséri on April 22 1900....
, an army officer who had been killed in the
Battle of KoussériThe battle of Kousséri originated in French plans to occupy the Chari-Baguirmi region. In 1899–1900, the French organized three armed columns, one proceeding north from Congo, one east from Niger and another south from Algeria...
a few days earlier. Its name was changed to N'Djamena (taken from the
ArabArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
name of a nearby village,
Niǧāmīnā, meaning
"place of rest") by the
President- List of Heads of State of Chad :- Affiliations :
...
François TombalbayeFrançois Tombalbaye, also called Ngarta Tombalbaye , was a teacher and a trade union activist who served as the first president of Chad. He was born in the southern region of the country in the Moyen-Chari Prefecture near the city of Koumara and was of the Sara ethnic group, the prominent ethnicity...
on April 6, 1973, as part of his
authenticitéAuthenticité was the name given to the Chadian president François Tombalbaye's attempt to remove foreign influence and promote southern Chadian culture throughout Chad during the 1970s...
program of
AfricanizationAfricanization or Africanisation has been applied in various contexts, notably in naming and in the composition of staff.-Africanization of names:...
.
Fort Lamy received its first bank branch only in 1950, when the Bank of West Africa (BAO) finally opened a branch there.
The city was partly destroyed during the
Chadian Civil WarThe Transitional Government of National Unity was the coalition government of armed groups that nominally ruled Chad from 1979 to 1982, during the most chaotic phase of the long-running civil war that began in 1965. The GUNT replaced the fragile alliance led by Félix Malloum and Hissène Habré,...
, in 1979 and again in 1980. Many southern, Chadian inhabitants fled at the time, but the population has since regrown strongly. The city had only 9,976 inhabitants in 1937, but a decade later, in 1947, the population had almost doubled at 18,435. After independence in 1968 the population reached 126,483. In 1993 it surpassed half a million with 529,555.
On April 13, 2006, a rebel
United Front for Democratic ChangeThe United Front for Democratic Change or Front uni pour le changement is a Chadian rebel alliance, made up of eight individual rebel groups, all with the goals of overthrowing the government of current Chadian President. It is now part of the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development. UFDC...
attack on the city was defeated. (
See Battle of N'Djamena (2006))
The city was once again attacked on February 2, 2008, by UFDD and
RFCThe Rally of Democratic Forces is a Chadian rebel group led by Timan Erdimi. It is currently allied to the United Front for Democratic Change rebel group and both are dedicated to overthrowing Erdimi's uncle, the current Chadian President Idriss Déby and his administration...
rebels. (
See Battle of N'Djamena (2008)The Battle of N'Djamena began on February 2, 2008 when Chadian rebel forces opposed to Chadian President Idriss Déby entered N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, after a three-day advance through the country. The rebels were initially successful, taking a large part of the city and attacking the...
)
Demographics
The population growth is shown below:-
- 1937 : 9,976
- 1940 : 12,552
- 1947 : 18,375
- 1968 : 126,483
- 1993 : 529,555
- 2005 : 721,000
- 2008 : 860,000 (est.)
- 2009 : 993,492
A variety of religions are practiced in the city, but with a clear Islamic predominance. The main
ethnic groups are Ngambaye (16.41%),
Chadian ArabsArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
(11.08%), Hadjerai (9.15%),
DazaThe Daza people are a semi-nomadic ethnicity living primarily in the Sahara regions of south-eastern Niger and north and central Chad. They consider themselves a warrior people, and are almost entirely Muslim. The Daza speak the Dazaga language. The increasing desertification of Africa has resulted...
(6.97%),
BilalaThe Bilala, or Bulala, are a Muslim people that live around Lake Fitri, in the Batha Prefecture, in central Chad. The last Chadian census in 1993 stated that they numbered 136.629 persons. Their language, divided in four dialects, is of the Nilo-Saharan group, and is very close to that of two of...
(5.83%),
KanembuThe Kanembu are an ethnic group of Chad, generally considered the modern descendants of the Kanem-Borno Empire. The Kanembu number an estimated 655,000 people, located primarily in Chad's Lac Prefecture but also in Chari-Baguirmi and Kanem prefectures. They speak the Kanembu language, a variant...
(5.80%), Maba (4.84%),
KanuriThe Kanuri people are an African ethnic group living largely in the lands of the former Bornu Empire: Bornu state in northeastern Nigeria, southeast Niger, western Chad and northern Cameroon...
(4.39%), Gor (3.32%), Kuka (3.20%),
SaraThe Sara are an ethnic group in Central Africa, who reside mostly in Chad, making up approximatively 30% of its southern population.-In Chad:...
(2.24%), and
BarmaBarma may refer to:*Baguirmi, people of Chad*Postnik Yakovlev, Russian architect, nicknamed Barma...
(2.10%).
Geography
N'Djamena is located at 12°6'47" N, 15°2'57" E.
While primarily an administrative center, the city includes the Nassara Strip
commercial centreA central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city...
and residential areas such as
MbololoMbolo is a residential district of the city of N'Djamena, the capital of Chad....
, Chagoua, Paris Congo and Moursal. The main commercial avenue of the city is the
Avenue Charles de GaulleAvenue Charles de Gaulle is one of the main streets and principal commercial avenue of N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, which is named after former French president Charles de Gaulle. It runs in a roughly west-east direction through the city...
.
Tourism
Attractions in the city include the
Chad National MuseumThe Chad National Museum is the national museum of Chad. It is located in the capital city of N'Djamena at near Avenue Felix Eboue, with a mailing address of BP 638, Fort Archambault. The museum was established on October 6, 1962 in temporary quarters under the name of Chad National Museum,...
, a
cathedralA cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
and several mosques. Views of
sunsetSunset is the daily disappearance of the sun below the horizon as a result of the Earth's rotation. The atmospheric conditions created by the setting of the sun, occurring before and after it disappears below the horizon, are also commonly referred to as "sunset".In astronomy the time of sunset is...
across the
Chari RiverThe Chari or Shari River is a 949-kilometer-long river of central Africa. It flows from the Central African Republic through Chad into Lake Chad, following the Cameroon border from N'Djamena, where it joins the Logone River waters....
can also be spectacular.
Education
N'Djamena have two universities:
University of N'DjamenaThe University of N'Djamena is the leading institution of higher education in Chad. It was created in 1971 as the University of Chad, and was renamed to "University of N'Djamena" in 1994...
in French as a studying language built 1971 and King Faisal University - Chad in Arabic as a studying language built 1991, a number of secondary schools (including the long established Lycée
Félix ÉbouéFélix Adolphe Éboué was a Black French colonial administrator and Free French leader.-Biography:...
and Lycée technique commercial), and the
American International School of N'DjamenaThe American International School of N’Djamena is a small international school in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena. It is an independent, coeducational day school which offers an American-style educational program from prekindergarten through grade 8...
.
Transport
The city is the eastern terminus of the
Trans-Sahelian HighwayThe Trans-Sahelian Highway or Trans-Sahel Highway is a transnational highway project to pave, improve and ease border formalities on a highway route through the southern fringes of the Sahel region in West Africa between Dakar, Senegal in the west and Ndjamena, Chad, in the east...
, and is linked to
East AfricaEast Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
by the
Ndjamena-Djibouti HighwayThe Ndjamena-Djibouti Highway is Trans-African Highway 6 in the transcontinental road network being developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa , the African Development Bank , and the African Union, connecting the Sahelian region to the Indian Ocean port of Djibouti in the...
. The
Tripoli-Cape Town HighwayThe Tripoli – Cape Town Highway is Trans-African Highway 3 in the transcontinental road network being developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa , the African Development Bank , and the African Union...
also passes through N'Djamena, making it a key
Central AfricaCentral Africa is a core region of the African continent often considered to include Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
n location in the
Trans-African Highway networkThe Trans-African Highway network comprises transcontinental road projects in Africa being developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa , the African Development Bank , and the African Union in conjunction with regional international communities...
. Ndjamena is linked by road bridge to
KousseriKousséri is a city in Far North Province, Cameroon, lying on the border with Chad, across the Chari River from N'Djamena. It is the capital of the Logone-et-Chari department. It is a market town and is growing extremely fast. It had a population of 76,200 in 2001. Estimated population 2007:...
in
CameroonThe Republic of Cameroon is a unitary republic of central and western Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the Bight of...
.
N'Djamena International AirportN'Djamena International Airport , serves N'Djamena, Chad, and is the main international airport of Chad.The airport is dual use, with civilian and military installations on opposite sides of the single runway.- Military base :...
(
IATA codeIATA codes are abbreviations that the International Air Transport Association publishes to facilitate air travel. They are typically 1-, 2-, 3-, or 4-character combinations that uniquely identify locations, equipment, companies, and times to standardize international flight operations...
NDJ) is located on the outskirts of the city.
Historically, N'Djamena's main link to the exterior was by
riverA river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water...
boat up the
ChariThe Chari or Shari River is a 949-kilometer-long river of central Africa. It flows from the Central African Republic through Chad into Lake Chad, following the Cameroon border from N'Djamena, where it joins the Logone River waters....
and Logone rivers but these now carry little trade.
The city has no railway links, however railway are proposed in the
AfricaRailAfricaRail is a project to link the railway systems of Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin and Togo. All these systems are .A future stage would link Mali, Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana which are of , , changing all to...
project.
Twin citiesSister cities, also known as town twinning, is an agreement between towns, cities and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties...
FRA
ToulouseToulouse is a city in southwest France on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. With 1,102,882 inhabitants as of Jan...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, since 1980. Tacoma (United States of America), since 2009.
StupinoStupino is a town and the administrative center of Stupinsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River 100 km south of Moscow at . Population: 63,124 ; 74,476 ....
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, since 2000.
External links