Armed Forces of the North

The Armed Forces of the North, known by its French initials FAN, was a Chadian rebel army active during the Chadian Civil War. It was composed of FROLINAT units that stayed loyal to Hissène Habré after his break in 1976 with Goukouni Oueddei and the Command Council of the Armed Forces of the North. At first it numbered only a few hundred Toubou fighters with some Hajerai and Ouaddaïan recruits, and it operated from bases in eastern Chad with help from Sudan. Driven out of N'Djamena after the Libyan incursion of 1980, it won a series of victories over the forces of Goukouni's transitional government in 1982 and retook the capital, after which Habré became president. In February 1983 it became the core of the new Chadian National Armed Forces.