From their rear bases in southern Libya, FACT and CCMSR have launched offensives and raids into Northern Chad seeking to overthrow the government of former president Idriss Déby, who had been in power since a December 1990 coup.

Historically, Chad has suffered from a large number of civil wars, foreign conflicts, and coups since its independence from France in 1958.

Several Chadian rebel groups consequently became mercenaries in service of various Libyan factions, receiving money and weaponry to prepare for their return to Chad.

[9] By 2017, the Chadian intelligence believed that rebels led by Timane Erdimi, a nephew and long-time opponent of Idriss Déby, were gathering weapons in southern Libya.

[11] On 11 August 2018, CCMSR launched a major attack on the military outpost at Kouri Bougoudi in the Tibesti Mountains, later claiming to have killed 73 and captured 45 soldiers while suffering just 11 casualties (4 dead, 7 wounded).

[18] On 12 January 2019, a Sudanese armed group, the Justice and Equality Movement, crossed the border with Libya with dozens of vehicles and attacked CCSMR positions in Kouri Bougoudi.

[21] French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian explained the operation by claiming that France had acted "to prevent a coup d'etat".

The base also harbored mercenaries of the Russian Wagner Group, former Blackwater associates, and troops of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces.

[29] In March 2022, further peace talks were held in Doha, involving Déby's regime and several rebel groups, including FACT, MDJT, and UFDD.

[32] In the same month, gold miners in Tibesti clashed in a battle which left over one hundred people dead; CCMSR and FACT subsequently accused the government of negligence regarding communal violence.

Calling itself the "Revolution Movement for Southern Chad" (MRST), it claimed to have thousands of members and requested Russian support for its operations.

Meanwhile, the Chadian government signed a peace agreement with a self-defence group based in Miski; the militia had previously fought against state control of the local gold mines.

At the same time, unrest grew in Chad's eastern regions due to a mass influx of refugees fleeing the civil war in Sudan.

[41] In southern Chad, a number of deadly attacks and cattle raids were carried out by groups operating from the Central African Republic.

[46] Though the Chadian government described the Paoua camps as belonging to "bandits", journalists identified them as likely bases of the MRST and the RPJET insurgent groups.

[45] In general, southern Chad was affected by growing tensions between farmers and cattle herders, resulting in a number of deadly intercommunal clashes.

Meanwhile, the Popular Front for Recovery (FPR) declared that it was siding with FACT and called on all "patriotic forces" to launch a unified "national uprising" against Déby.

The men, led by Lt. Kouroumta Levana Guelemi, had reportedly formed a group called "M3M" and planned an "insurrection" and/or coup d'état.

[49][50] In May, a group of prisoners were released from CCMSR custody in Niger under disputed circumstances; the 21 Chadian soldiers had been captured by rebels in 2023 and taken to Libya.

[13] In 2023, Central African Republic's security forces cooperated with the Chadian military during anti-rebel operations; as the relations between the two states have been historically strained, this was seen as unusual by journalists.

[48][9] In 2023, the United States intelligence leaked documents according to which the Wagner Group was cooperating with Hemedti -head of the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces- to recruit as well as train Chad rebels in the Central African Republic with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the Chadian government.