Chad: No Winners

As this article in the Mail & Guardian shows, the situation in Chad is misrable and the upcoming elections hardly seem poised to improve matters. There is the Sudan refugee crisis. There is the country's own poverty. There is the ruthless dictator, Idriss Deby, gunning, in the fashion of so many African dictators before him, to change the rules and run for another term in office. There are those intriguing against Deby, who look not to improve Chad but to get their hands on the oil riches pouring into the country even as the people see none of its benefits. There are the (maybe, maybe not) Sudan-sponsored militias. There are the western oil interests willing to overlook all of this. Read the whole thing. If those of us who watch Africa closely had not seen this so frequently, we'd say that it is unfathomable. Unfotunately, we have to fathom it; it is the grim reality.