Everything about The Toyota War totally explained
The
Toyota War is the name commonly given to the last phase of the
Chadian-Libyan conflict, which took place in
1987 in Northern Chad and on the Libyan-Chadian border. It takes its name from the
Toyota pickup trucks used as
technicals to provide mobility for the
Chadian troops as they fought against the
Libyans. The 1987 war resulted in a heavy defeat for
Libya, which, according to
American sources, lost one tenth of its army, with 7,500 troops killed and 1.5 billion dollars worth of
military equipment destroyed or captured.
The war began with the Libyan occupation of northern Chad in
1983, when Libya's leader
Gaddafi, refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the
Chadian President Hissène Habré, militarily supported the attempt by the opposition
Transitional Government of National Unity (GUNT) to overthrow Habré. The plan was foiled by the intervention of France that, first with
Operation Manta and later with
Operation Epervier, limited Libyan expansion to north of the 16th
parallel, in the most desertic and sparsely inhabited part of Chad.
In
1986 the GUNT rebelled against Gaddafi, stripping Libya of its main cover of legitimacy for its military presence in Chad. Seeing an occasion to unify Chad behind him, Habré ordered his forces to pass the 16th parallel so as to link with the GUNT rebels (who were fighting the Libyans in
Tibesti) in December. A few week later a bigger force struck at
Fada, destroying the local Libyan garrison. In three months, combining the methods of guerilla and conventional warfare in a common strategy, Habré was able to retake almost all northern Chad, and in the following months, inflicted new heavy defeats on the Libyans, until a
ceasefire putting an end to the conflict was signed in September. The ceasefire left open the issue of the disputed
Aouzou Strip, which was eventually assigned to Chad by the
International Court of Justice in
1994.
Background
Since
1983 Chad was
de facto partitioned, with the northern half controlled by the rebel
Transitional Government of National Unity (GUNT) headed by
Goukouni Oueddei and supported on the ground by
Libyan forces, while the south was held by the Western-backed Chadian government guided by
Hissène Habré. This partition on 16th Parallel (the so-called Red Line) into Libyan and French zones of influence was unformally recognised by
France in
1984, following an accord between France and
Libya to retire from the country the respective forces present in Chad. The accord wasn't respected by Libya, which maintained at least 3,000 men stationed in northern Chad.
During the period between 1984 and 1986, in which no major clash took place, Habré greatly strengthened his position thanks to western support and Libya's failure to respect the Franco-Libyan 1984 agreement. Decisive was also the increasing factional bickering that started plaguing the GUNT since 1984, centered around the fight between Goukouni and
Acheikh ibn Oumar over the leadership of the organization. Taking advantage of the GUNT's difficulties, Habré struck a series of accords with smaller rebel factions, which left the GUNT at the beginning of
1986 with only three of the eleven factions that had originally signed the
Lagos Accord in
1979. The remaining factions were Goukouni's
People's Armed Forces (FAP), Acheikh's armed branch of the
Democratic Revolutionary Council (CDR) and that part of the
Chadian Armed Forces (FAT) which had maintained its loyalty to
Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué.
Forces on the ground
At the opening of 1987, the last year of the war, the Libyan expeditionary force was still impressive, comprising 8,000 troops, 300 tanks, many multiple rocket launchers (
rocket artillery) and regular artillery pieces,
Mi-24 helicopters and sixty combat aircraft. These forces didn't have a unified command, but were divided into an Operational Group South, active in the
Tibesti with 2,500 men, and an Operational Group East, centered in
Faya-Largeau.
Apparently formidable, the Libyan military dispositive in Chad was marred by serious flaws. The Libyans were prepared for a war in which they'd provide ground and air support to their Chadian allies, act as assault infantry, and provide reconnaissance. However, by 1987,
Gaddafi had lost his allies, exposing Libya's inadequate knowledge of the area. Libyan garrisons came to resemble isolated and vulnerable islands in the
Chadian Sahara. Also important was the low morale among the troops, who were fighting in a foreign country, and the structural disorganization of the
Libyan army, which was in part induced by Gaddafi's fear of a military coup against him. This fear led him to avoid the professionalization of the armed forces.
The Libyans had also to deal with the greatly strengthened
Chadian National Armed Forces (FANT), which was composed of 10,000 highly motivated troops, led by experienced and able commanders, such as
Idriss Déby,
Hassan Djamous and
President Hissène Habré himself. And while FANT previously had no airpower, limited mobility and few antitank and antiaircraft weapons, by 1987 it could count on the
French Air Force to ground the Libyan aircraft, and, more importantly, to provide 400 highly mobile
Toyota pickups equipped with
MILAN anti-tank guided missiles. It is these trucks that gave the name "Toyota War" to this last phase of the Chadian-Libyan conflict.
Libyan expulsion
Habré selected as the first target for his reconquest of northern Chad the well-fortified Libyan communications base of
Fada. It was defended by 2,000 Libyans and the bulk of the
Democratic Revolutionary Council (CDR) militia (Gaddafi's closest Chadian allies), well-provided with armour and artillery. Hassan Djamous, the thirty-year-old FANT commander-in-chief, pitched about 4,000–5,000 troops against Fada's Libyan garrison.
The unexpected defeat stunned Gaddafi, who then reacted on
January 4 by recalling to service all of the
army reservists. In an act of defiance towards France, he also ordered the bombing of Arada, well south of the 16th parallel. France retaliated with a new airstrike on Ouadi Doum and destroyed their radar system, effectively blinding the Libyan Air Force in Chad for several months. Gaddafi attempted to contain the FANT threat by rushing several new battalions into Chad (especially to
Faya-Largeau and
Ouadi Doum), including units of the elite
Revolutionary Guard. This brought the amount of Libyan forces in the country to a total of 11,000 by March.
In March 1987, the main Libyan air base of Ouadi Doum was captured by Chadian forces. Although strongly defended by
minefields, 5,000 troops, tanks, armored vehicles, and aircraft, the Libyans' base fell to a smaller Chadian attacking force led by Djamous equipped with trucks mounted with machine guns and antitank weapons. Observers estimated that, in the Chadian victories in the first three months of 1987, more than 3,000 Libyan soldiers had been killed, captured, or deserted. Large numbers of tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery, fixed-wing aircraft, and helicopters were captured or destroyed. In some cases, Libya sent its own aircraft to bomb abandoned Libyan equipment to deny its use to the Chadians. It was reported that, in many cases, Libyan soldiers had been killed while fleeing to avoid battle. At Ouadi Doum, panicked Libyans had suffered high casualties running through their own minefields.
The fall of Ouadi Doum was a severe setback for Libya. Deserted by most of their Chadian allies, Libyan forces found themselves isolated in foreign territory, and the loss of the main Libyan air base in Chad prevented Libya from providing close air cover to its troops. In general, the offensive against FANT had exposed the vulnerability of Libya's heavy armor to a more mobile enemy. On Gaddafi's orders, a general withdrawal was undertaken from
Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Prefecture, beginning with
Faya-Largeau. The town had served as the main Libyan base during the preceding four years, but was in danger of being encircled. Its garrison of 3,000 troops, together with the survivors of Ouadi Doum, retired toward the Libyan base at Maatan-as-Sarra, north of the Chadian border. In an attempt to reduce the damage inflicted to his international standing, Gaddafi announced that Libya had won the confrontation, and was now leaving Chad so that the opposition could play its part in fighting Habré.
These military actions left Habré in control of Chad and in a position to threaten the expulsion of Libya from the
Aouzou Strip, affected the international perception of Libya as a significant regional military power, and cast renewed doubt on the competence and determination of Libyan soldiers, especially in engagements beyond the country's borders to which they evidently felt no personal commitment. As part of the
Reagan Administration's support for his government, Habré, during a visit to
Washington, received a pledge of 32 million
United States dollars worth of aid, including
Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.
After a succession of counterattacks, toward the end of August the Libyans finally drove the 400 Chadian troops out of the town. This victory — the first by Libyan ground forces since the start of the Toyota War — was apparently achieved through close-range air strikes, which were followed by ground troops advancing cross-country in jeeps, Toyota all-terrain trucks, and light armored vehicles. For the Libyans, who had previously relied on ponderous tracked armour, the assault represented a conversion to the desert warfare tactics developed by FANT.
Ceasefire
Because of domestic opposition, internal demoralization, and international hostility, Gaddafi assumed a more conciliatory attitude following his defeat. On the other side, Habré also found himself vulnerable, as the French feared that the attack on
Maatan as-Sarrah was only the first stage of a general offensive into Libya proper, a possibility that France wasn't disposed to tolerate. As a result, Mitterrand forced Habré to accept the mediation efforts of the
Organization of African Unity's
Zambian Chairman,
Kenneth Kaunda, which resulted in a ceasefire on
September 11.
It was assumed that war would, sooner of later, resume, but in the end the ceasefire violations were relatively minor. Gaddafi announced in May 1988 that he'd recognize Habré as President of Chad "as a gift to Africa", even if Libya refused to leave the disputed Aouzou Strip. On
February 3 1994 the court ruled in favour of Chad, thus definitively solving the Aouzou controversy by assigning the territory to the southern country.
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