Aozou Strip

Aozou Strip, zone in northern Chad, running the length of the 1,050-km (650-mi) border between Chad and Libya, and once a disputed territory between the two nations. This remote desert region of about 115,000 sq km (about 44,000 sq mi) was named after a military outpost in the Tibesti massif, which extends from the northwestern part of the region into Libya and Niger. Inhabited by a small number of nomads and military personnel, the desolate area is believed to contain deposits of uranium, oil, and manganese. Libya claimed ownership of the Aozou Strip under the 1935 Mussolini-Laval Treaty, an unratified Franco-Italian boundary agreement extending Libya (then an Italian possession) some 320 km (200 mi) south into Chad (then part of French Equatorial Africa). Since independence in 1951, Libya has considered the treaty binding. Libyans occupied Aozou as early as 1954, only to withdraw under French pressure. With the rise of the Libyan military regime of Muammar al-Qaddafi in 1969, the territory became a major source of contention. In a secret protocol to a 1972 reconciliation pact, Chadian president François Tombalbaye allegedly agreed to allow a Libyan advance into Chad in exchange for Libya’s withdrawal of support for Chadian opposition movements. The military junta that toppled Tombalbaye in 1975 opposed the agreement but was powerless to expel the Libyan forces, which had moved in with armor and missiles. Chad regained Aozou in 1987 with French and American assistance. In 1993 the question of ownership was submitted to the International Court of Justice, which formally awarded the territory to Chad in 1994.