Toyota War

The Toyota War, also called the Great Toyota War, was the last phase of the Chadian-Libyan War and was fought in 1987 in northern Chad and along the Chad-Libya border. It is named for the Toyota Hilux and Land Cruiser pickup trucks that gave Chadian troops their mobility and were also used as improvised armed vehicles. The fighting followed Libya's occupation of northern Chad from 1983, when Muammar Gaddafi backed the opposition GUNT against President Hissene Habre, and French intervention limited Libyan expansion to the north of the 16th parallel. After the GUNT turned against Gaddafi in 1986, Habre's forces advanced, struck at Fada and retook almost all of the north by combining guerrilla and conventional methods. American sources say Libya lost about a tenth of its army, with 7,500 killed, while Chad suffered about 1,000 deaths. A ceasefire in September left the Aouzou Strip dispute open until the International Court of Justice awarded it to Chad in 1994.