Turkey told the UN Register of Conventional Arms that it exported 20 unidentified armoured personnel carriers to Chad in 2018. Ejder vehicles are fit to carry personnel, but these 4X4s are armed as they carry turrets. Chad has contributed 1,400 troops to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), and Ejder Yalçıns are used by UN peacekeepers in Mali.
Chad is a former colony of France. The country is officially non-aligned but has close relations with the former colonial power. It is a landlocked country in north-central Africa. It borders with Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon to the southwest, Nigeria to the southwest (at Lake Chad), and Niger to the west. Chad has several regions: a desert zone in the north, an arid Sahelian belt in the centre and a more fertile Sudan’s Savannah zone in the south. The Chad army is a desert army.
The modernisation of the Chad National Army began in 1991. Since 2003, the Darfur crisis in Sudan has spilt over the border and destabilised the nation.
Political parties take part in Chad's National Assembly. However, power is controlled by the Patriotic Salvation Movement during the presidency of Idriss Déby. After FACT, rebels killed President Déby in April 2021. Déby's son, General Mahamat Idriss Déby, has been named interim president by a Transitional Council of military officers. That transitional council has replaced the Constitution with a new charter, granting Mahamat Déby the presidency's powers and naming him head of the armed forces.
Chad is an underdeveloped country; however, it is currently one of the leading partners in a West African coalition fighting against Boko Haram and other Islamist militants. Its special forces are known to be one of the most experienced ones in desert conditions.
The President of Defence Industries said in December 2020 that Tunisia had placed USD150 million worth of orders with Turkish companies. The order included Ejder Yalçın vehicles. The camouflage of vehicles, however, looks similar to Qatar Armed Forces vehicles. Neither Qatar nor Tunisia has developed relations with Chad. The turret and the smoke grenade launchers' location and position do not match Qatar's vehicles.
They look similar to Tunisian vehicles and to those used at the UN Mission in Mali.
