Chad

Very little information is available on the private security industry in Chad, despite various security threats placing a high demand on public security forces and creating a potentially large market for private security. Decree No. 637 of 1996 regulates private security companies in Chad and prohibits their personnel from carrying arms.

Main law regulating private security: DECRET NO. 637/PR/MIS/96 (NO PUBLICLY AVAILABLE TEXT COULD BE FOUND)

Summary

Limited information on the private security industry in Chad is available, however the security situation in the country gives clues to the potential prevalence of private security companies operating within the country. Clashes between nomadic cattle-herders and farmers resulted in a state of emergency in three provinces in August 2019, creating additional demand on the already overstretched military forces. They are currently combatting a Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in southwestern Chad and a rebellion in northern Chad that resulted in French intervention by airstrikes. Additionally, Chad has committed to support the fight against Islamist militants in the Sahel and Lake Chad regions and is suffering from an influx of weapons and refugees from conflict zones in neighboring Libya, Central African Republic, and Sudan.[i]

It is possible that the high demand on public security forces to create a measure of security and order in the country has also increased the demand for private security companies (PSCs) to provide services where government forces cannot. Additionally, one of Chad’s top exports is oil – it is not uncommon for private security personnel to assist in protecting extractive sites, and a country with minimal public security personnel to spare might utilize the private security services available to them for extractive industry protection.

Legal Framework

Decree No. 637 of 1996 regulates the private security industry in Chad prohibits private security personnel from carrying arms.[ii] A clear challenge to regulating PSCs is the age of their current legal framework for private security, as the evolution of the private security sector over the past two decades may prove the Decree obsolete.

• Decree No. 637 of 1996 (Not publicly available)

Members of the Private Security Governance Observatory:

• Public Interest Law Center

[i] “Chad Declares State of Emergency in 3 Regions Due to Security Problems.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, August 19, 2019. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chad-security/chad-declares-state-of-emergency-in-3-regions-due-to-security-problems-idUSKCN1V91FG.

[ii] United Nations, General Assembly, Human Rights Council, "Report of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination: Visit to Chad, A/HRC/42/42/Add.1" (2019).