Abatcha was proclaimed Secretary-General, while another cadre of the UNT, Abou Bakar Djalabou, was designated to lead the delegation that would represent the movement abroad.

The front was composed exclusively by Muslim northerners, and there was to be no attempt to create a link to the southern expatriates in the Central African Republic.

[6] The movement's official program, also approved at the Nyala congress, proclaimed the rejection of secession, confessional politics, and ethnic discrimination, and stated that neocolonialism should be fought in order to "regain the total national independence of our fatherland".

So when Abatcha, with seven North Korean trained companions, penetrated Eastern Chad in November 1966, he could count on a territory that was already in full revolt.

This extended the insurgency to the north and the Toubou nomads, adding a new element of complexity to the rebellion and bringing support to the movement from Chadians living in Libya, and especially students at the Islamic University of Bayda.

[10] These divisions did not much help the Chadian government; Tombalbaye's authority in the central and northern parts of the country was limited to a patchwork of urban centers, often connected only by air.

As a result, a French mission arrived with ample powers to reform the army and the civil service and to recommend the abolition of unpopular laws and taxes.

The result of these moves was positive; the insurgents were confined to the Tibesti and the French started retiring their troops, which had played a key role in the years 1969–1971.

Certain to have defeated the FROLINAT, Tombalbaye left the reforms in the summer of 1971 and accused some of the recently freed political prisoners of having attempted a coup d'état with the help of Libya.

In reaction, Libyan president Muammar al-Gaddafi officially recognized Abba Siddick's FROLINAT, offering him economic and logistic support.

The manifestations of student rioting in November 1971 caused the destitution of the Chadian Chief of Staff, general Jacques Doumro; his position was occupied by colonel Félix Malloum.

Habré and Goukouni had formed the CCFAN with the design to unite all the northern elements of the FROLINAT under their banner, but now the situation was heavily embroiled by the affair Claustre, which brought France to negotiate directly with the rebels and not sustain Tombalbaye's successor, Malloum, who reacted by asking the 1,500 French troops in Chad to leave the country.

The question of Libyan support caused a rupture between Goukouni and Habré, both Toubous but of traditionally opposed clans, whom circumstances had made allies in 1971.

In 1976, Habré, commanding only a minority of the CCFAN, broke away from the main organization with a few hundred followers and assumed his headquarters in the Batha and Biltine prefectures, founding the Armed Forces of the North (FAN).

All these formations united under the banner of the newly formed People's Armed Forces (FAP), led by Goukouni, who conquered Faya-Largeau in February 1979, assuming control of half the Chadian territory.

New parties with little or no roots in Chad were formed for this conference, like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Chad (FPLT), headed by Awad Muktar Nasser, a force sustained by Sudan; or the South Front, founded in April 1979, a Muslim group composed of a few dozens of fighters commanded by the Sudanese police sergeant (of Chadian origin) Hadjaro al-Senousi, who boasted to lead an "original FROLINAT", and to have no less than 3,000 men ready in Sudan.

On the basis of the Kano Accord a national unity government was formed on April 29, 1979, with Goukouni as interior minister, Habré at the Defence, the general Negue Djogo vice-president (who represented the south, but had broken with Kamougué).

Libya protested against these arrangements because they excluded Ahmat Acyl, who had succeeded Baghlani as commander of the Volcan Army after the death of the latter in a flight accident.

But French increasing support for Goukouni prepared what happened on October 29, 1981, when the GUNT's president asked Libyan troops to leave the country.

On October 28, Goukouni allied eight of the eleven tendencies represented in the GUNT and formed the National Government for Peace in Chad (GNPT) and the Liberation Armed Forces (FAL), both headed by him.

In March 1983, Chad requested the United Nations the recognition of Chadian sovereignty over the Aozou Strip, and posed the case of the Libyan occupation to the International Court of Justice of The Hague.

But the FAL conquered Faya-Largeau on June 25, and with it a third of the country; an attack on the capital appeared imminent, but it never happened, mainly due to France's strong support of Habré.

Great amounts of modern military equipment were provided to him by France and other western countries, giving him an opening to retake Faya-Largeau on July 30.

In 1989, opposition groups to Habré's rule present in Sudan, under the command of Idriss Déby, formed the Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) and initiated a new phase of the civil war.

Finally a national conference attended by all the parties and guerrilla forces took place between January 15 and April 6, 1993, that culminated with the formation of a High Transitional Council under the presidency of Déby.