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Author: Admin | 2025-04-27
In April 2021, rebels calling themselves the Front pour l’alternance et la concorde au Tchad (FACT) entered Chad through its northern border with Libya and carried out the most serious rebel incursion into the country since 2008. The ensuing political turmoil, including the death of the then president, Idriss Déby, not only raised questions about the future of Chad’s political system, but also highlighted the extent to which northern Chad remains a key part of the volatile regional security dynamics that will shape the country’s future.The Kouri Bougoudi goldfield, straddling Chad’s northern border with Libya, is an area with a concentration of illicit markets and armed criminal actors, which have contributed to regional instability.1 The area experiences regular outbreaks of violence due to deep-rooted sources of tensions between local actors, political grievances and competition over resources.2At the same time, gold mining in Kouri Bougoudi also provides essential livelihoods and economic opportunities for local populations in an otherwise marginal and impoverished region. In a context where northern Chad and its cross-border areas with Niger and Libya face further destabilization following the return of rebel and mercenary groups from Libya in the wake of the October 2020 peace accords,3 artisanal gold mining has the potential to offer alternatives to criminal activity and armed mobilization. The formation of a new transitional government in Chad, following the death of Déby in April 2021, could provide an opportunity to renew stabilization efforts in the Tibesti region by adopting sustainable efforts to regulate gold mining and moving away from purely securitized approaches to managing the area.Lying at the heart of several overlapping regional criminal economies, Kouri Bougoudi not only represents a potential powder keg for the region, but also highlights the extent to which effective efforts to stabilize northern Chad will not only have to account for complex criminal interests, but also address long-standing grievances and expectations of local communities. Engagement that fails to account for these dynamics only risks creating new pockets of instability both at the national level and throughout the subregion.Illicit markets thrive in Kouri Bougoudi View of Kouri 17, one of the main gold sites. Photo: GI-TOCThe discovery of gold deposits in northern Chad in 2012 triggered a rush of Chadian and foreign prospectors.4 Kouri Bougoudi is the largest goldfield in northern Chad, with mining sites straddling the Libyan border. Now covering an area of approximately 300 km2, the goldfield at its peak hosted 40 000 gold miners, migrants and others.5 Kouri Bougoudi is also a major regional hub for polycriminal armed groups involved in the smuggling of fuel and food staples, drug trafficking, arms trafficking and armed banditry.6Artisanal gold mining is officially prohibited in Chad, but its lucrative nature and weaknesses in imposing the government ban in Kouri Bougoudi have made the goldfield a magnet for miners and traders from across the region. Traders buy extracted gold from miners and site ‘owners’ before selling it through various channels. Most gold from Kouri Bougoudi is either transported south to N’Djamena before being
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