Battle of Fada

The battle of Fada took place in northern Chad in 1987, and was a turning point of the Libyan-Chadian War.

Prelude

At the beginning of 1986 the Libyans controlled all Chad north of the 16th parallel. However, when the French intervened in the country in Operation Sparrowhawk and Goukouni Oueddei's and his People's Armed Forces rebelled against his former supporter Muammar al-Gaddafi, Libya's President, the situation became critical for the Libyan army and promising for Chad's President Hissène Habré.

Certain that the French would protect Chad south of the 16th parallel, Habré started assembling his army, the Chadian National Armed Forces (FANT), at Kalaït, a logistic deposit built by France exactly at the 16th parallel, and which it had stocked with munitions, weapons and fuel. France and the United States had equipped the FANT with a large number of Toyota pickups, and antitank and antiaircraft missile launchers, such as MILAN ATGWs. The FANT assault under the command of Hassan Djamous deployed almost 3000 soldiers for the coming battle.

Battle

This powerful force attacked Fada, the capital of the Ennedi and a Libyan stronghold, on January 2. Hassan Djamous took the 1,000 Libyan soldiers and the 300–400 members of the Revolutionary Democratic Council (CDR) militia by surprise. In a short but brutal engagement the FANT almost annihilated the Libyan armoured brigade that defended Fada: 784 Libyans died, 92 T-55 tanks and 33 BMP-1 infantry fighting......
Read More