Ibrahim Abatcha
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Ibrahim Abatcha (d. 1968) was a Muslim, a Chadian, and a socialist revolutionaire, born in what was then the British colony of Nigeria, in Borno.
Abatcha, a small civil servant[1], became a politician in French Chad, where he was amongst the leaders of the Chadian National Union (UNT), founded in 1958 to promote the No-vote in the referendum on Chad's entry in the French Community. The party's followers were all Muslims, and advocated Pan-Africanism and socialism. It staunchly opposed after independence in 1960 the rule of President François Tombalbaye, and was banned with all other opposition parties on January 19, 1962. After this Abatcha wrote for the UNT a policy statement; this draft was to be the core of the official program of the FROLINAT.[2]
The UNT survived as a clandestine party under the leadership of Abatcha, who in the Congress of Nyala between June 19 and June 22, 1966, merged the UNT with General Union of the Children of Chad (UGFT), led by Ahmed Hassan Musa, to form the National Liberation Front of Chad (FROLINAT), a rebel insurgent group intentioned to overthrow Tombalbaye. Abatcha, who had received military training in North Korea[3], was proclaimed the new secretary-general of the organization. The movement was vaguely socialist in program, and was formed almost exclusively to Muslims. On November 15 Abatcha passed the border and reached the insurgents in Chad, becoming personally Eastern region field commander, and attempted to keep under control or remove the bands of looters operative against Tombalbaye in the region.[4]
Abatcha died in battle on February 11, 1968. The circumstances of his death triggered from a FROLINAT ambush on the Abéché-Goz Beida road on January 20, in which two French doctors with their Chadian driver were killed. In the event a French nurse was taken in hostage and brought to Abatcha's headquarters in Salamat, where Abatcha turned down proposals to kill the nurse also. Searched by the Chadian Armed Forces (FAT), Abatcha abandoned his headquarters on February 7, but was fatally wounded four days later in a skirmish with the army.[5]
After him the FROLINAT was never again to be a really united organization; it was to disintegrate in a multitude of militias headed by a variety of warlords.
[edit] References
- Paul, Blanc (1987). Le prince et le griot: expériences et espérances africaines. Berger Levrault. ISBN 2-7013-0719-8.
- Sam C., Nolutshungu (1995). Limits of Anarchy: Intervention and State Formation in Chad. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 0-8139-1628-3.
- R. Brian Ferguson (2002). The State, Identity and Violence. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-27412-5.
- Sarah S. Milburn. "Toujours la Chasse Gardée?: French Power and Influence in Late 20th Century Francophone Central Africa (c. 1970-1995)". Columbia International Affairs.
