[2][4] Several Chadian dissident groups unified under the leadership of long-time insurgent commander Mahamat Mahdi Ali in March 2016, forming the "Front for Change and Concord in Chad" (FACT) and allying themselves with pro-GNA forces in Libya.

[1] This splinter faction consisted of Kreda clansmen and adopted the name "Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic" (CCMSR),[2][5] electing former UFDD spokesman Mahamat Hassani Bulmay its secretary-general.

His messages included support for the interests of the Chadian region of Bahr el Gazel as well as strong criticism of local politicians who worked with Déby's government.

[4][8] The rebel group suffered a heavy blow in October 2017, when the Nigerien government arrested three of its top leaders in Agadez, namely secretary-general Bulmay, spokesman Ahmat Yacoub Adam, and external affairs secretary Dr. Abderahman Issa Youssouf.

Bulmay, Adam, and Youssouf were subsequently put on trial in Chad, charged with the capital offense of terrorism, and transferred to the desert prison of Koro Toro.

[10] 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).

[4][11] From then on, the Chadian Air Force launched several bombing raids in the region, targeting the Kouri Bougoudi mining camp and camel herds, killing several civilians and depriving locals of their livelihood.

In late October 2018, Haftar's LNA launched an offensive in the Murzuq basin to evict rival Libyan and Chadian groups, including the CCMSR, from the region.

[13] By February 2019, the CCMSR came under increasing pressure by the LNA and its allies, as the latter had launched another offensive to evict the GNA and Chadian rebels from southern Libya.

[1] In one statement, Mahamat Hassani Bulmay described Déby's government as "clan despotism in its most pernicious and most abject form",[4] and stated that the only way to end his rule is through war.

[19] The CCMSR claims to have 4,500 fighters under its command, most of them members of the Toubou people's Daza subgroup, as well as smaller numbers of Arabs, Maba, and Zaghawa.