The Ennedi, Tibesti & the Sahara

The north holds some of humanity's deepest roots: in 2001 the skull known as Toumaï, a hominin about seven million years old, was found in the Djurab desert. Rock paintings and engravings in the Ennedi and Tibesti record a greener Sahara of cattle herders, giraffes and hunters.

Around Lake Chad, Kanem rose from about the 9th century as a trading empire whose Sayfawa rulers adopted Islam in the 11th century and controlled caravan routes to the Mediterranean. Pressure from the Bulala of the Lake Fitri area pushed the dynasty west of the lake in the 14th century, where it continued as Bornu, and Kanem became a contested borderland. The Toubou of the Tibesti and Ennedi remained independent camel nomads, and the Sanusi order from Libya built religious lodges in the desert in the 19th century.

France took the north slowly, fighting the Sanusi and holding Faya-Largeau from 1913, and ruled it under military administration long after 1960. Northern grievances fed the rebellions of the 1960s and 1970s. Libya occupied the Aozou Strip along the border in 1973 and pushed further south; Chadian forces drove them back in 1987 in fighting at Fada and Faya-Largeau, and in 1994 the International Court of Justice ruled that the Aozou Strip belongs to Chad, after which Libya withdrew. Gold discoveries in the Tibesti brought miners, armed groups and clashes with the army, and in April 2021 President Idriss Déby was killed during fighting with rebels who had advanced from Libya.

The Toubou, divided into the Teda of the Tibesti and the Daza of Borkou and the Ennedi, are known for their independence, endurance and camel culture; the Teda recognise a traditional spiritual head, the derde. The Zaghawa and related Bideyat live in the north-east. Further south, the Kanembu of Kanem honour the sultan of Mao as their traditional ruler, and the Buduma of the lake islands are fishermen and cattle herders.

The whole region is Muslim, and the Sanusi tradition has left its mark in the desert. Dress is protective and modest: men wind long turbans against sun and sand. Tea poured in three rounds is the ritual of welcome, and guests are never turned away from a camp.

Kinship, bride-wealth in camels and cattle, and the rules of the feud still carry weight among the nomads, and water rights at wells and gueltas are negotiated carefully between clans.

Most of the region's people live in its Sahelian south: in Mao, the Kanem capital, Bol on Lake Chad, Moussoro in Bahr el Gazel and Ati in Batha. In the desert, Faya-Largeau is the main town, with Fada in the western Ennedi, Amdjarass in the east and Bardaï and Zouar in the Tibesti, all small.

Herding of camels, cattle, goats and sheep is the main livelihood, with date palms in the oases of Borkou and gardens around wells. Around the lake, people farm the rich soils exposed as the water recedes and fish the channels. Natron, a natural soda, is dug around the shores of Lake Chad and traded widely, and Kanembu women harvest dihé, dried spirulina algae, from ponds near the lake.

Current pressures are the insecurity around Lake Chad, which has displaced tens of thousands of people, the gold rush in the Tibesti, drought and advancing sand, and the long distances to schools and clinics.

Desert food is simple and portable. Dates from the Borkou palm groves are eaten daily, often with camel or goat's milk, and millet boule is served with sauces of dried meat, dried okra or baobab leaves. Meat is grilled for guests or cut into strips and dried as charmout for the journey.

Around Lake Chad, fish is fresh, smoked or dried, and sauces are often seasoned with natron. Dihé, the blue-green spirulina cakes of the Kanembu, is crumbled into sauces as a source of protein.

Tea is the essential drink: strong green tea boiled with sugar, poured from a height and served in three rounds, the first bitter and the last sweet. Soured milk and water flavoured with dates are other everyday drinks.

The Ennedi plateau in the north-east, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the region's great sight: a sandstone massif carved by wind and water into arches, towers, and canyons. The Aloba Arch is one of the largest natural arches in the world, and rock art sites across the plateau show cattle, camels and people. Near Fada, the Guelta d'Archei is a permanent pool in a narrow gorge where herders water camels, and where a relict population of crocodiles has survived.

To the north, the Lakes of Ounianga, a second World Heritage Site, lie in two groups: Ounianga Kebir, around the large salty Lake Yoa, and Ounianga Serir, whose fresh lakes are partly covered by floating reeds.

Faya-Largeau, the Borkou oasis town, sits among palm groves and dunes near the Bodélé Depression, the dry bed of an ancient lake and a major source of airborne dust.

In the far north-west rise the Tibesti Mountains, an immense volcanic range crowned by Emi Koussi, the highest peak in the Sahara, with the vast Trou au Natron crater and the oasis of Bardaï, though the area is effectively closed to visitors. In the Sahel to the south lie Lake Chad's islands and reed beds around Bol and Lake Fitri in Batha, an important wetland for birds.