Toyota War

Toyota War
Part of the Chadian–Libyan conflict and the Cold War

Chadian soldiers on a Toyota Land Cruiser pickup truck in 2008. Vehicles such as these gave the 1986–1987 conflict its name.
Date16 December 1986 – 11 September 1987
(8 months, 3 weeks and 5 days)
Location
Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Prefecture, Chad
Result

Chadian and French victory

  • Ceasefire agreement
  • Expulsion of Libyan forces from Chad
Belligerents
Commanders and leaders
Strength
  • Libya:
    • 90,000[4]
    • 300+ tanks
    • 60+ aircraft
  • CDR:
    • 1,000 militia[5]
  • FANT:
  • FAP:
    • 1,500–2,000[7]
  • France:
    • 1,500
    • 12+ aircraft
Casualties and losses
  • 7,500 killed
  • 1,000 captured
  • 800 tanks and APCs lost
  • 28–32 aircraft destroyed[8]
 1,000 killed[8]
This article is part of
a series about
Muammar Gaddafi
Personal
Affiliations
Libya under Muammar Gaddafi
Military (Armed Forces)
Leadership (History)
Elections and referendums
Muammar Gaddafi's signature

The Toyota War (Arabic: حرب التويوتا, romanized: Ḥarb al-Tūyūtā, French: Guerre des Toyota), also known as the Great Toyota War,[9] which took place in 1987 in Northern Chad and on the Chad–Libya border, was the last phase of the Chadian–Libyan War. It takes its name from the Toyota pickup trucks, primarily the Toyota Hilux and the Toyota Land Cruiser, used to provide mobility for the Chadian troops as they fought against the Libyans, and as technicals.[10] The 1987 war resulted in a heavy defeat for Libya, which, according to American sources, lost one tenth of its army, with 7,500 men killed and US$1.5 billion worth of military equipment destroyed or captured.[11] Chadian forces suffered 1,000 deaths.[8]

The war began with the Libyan occupation of northern Chad in 1983, when Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi, refusing to recognise the legitimacy of the Chadian President Hissène Habré, militarily supported the attempt by the opposition Transitional Government of National Unity (GUNT) to overthrow Habré. The plan was foiled by the intervention of France which, first with Operation Manta and later with Operation Epervier, limited Libyan expansion to north of the 16th parallel, in the most arid and sparsely inhabited part of Chad.[12]

In 1986, the GUNT rebelled against Gaddafi, stripping Libya of its main cover of legitimacy for its military presence in Chad. Seeing an occasion to unify Chad behind him, Habré ordered his forces to pass the 16th parallel so as to link up with the GUNT rebels (who were fighting the Libyans in Tibesti) in December.[13] A few weeks later a bigger force struck at Fada, destroying the local Libyan garrison. In three months, combining methods of guerilla and conventional warfare in a common strategy,[14] Habré was able to retake almost all of northern Chad, and in the following months, inflicted new heavy defeats on the Libyans, until a ceasefire putting an end to the conflict was signed in September. The ceasefire left open the issue of the disputed Aouzou Strip, which was eventually assigned to Chad by the International Court of Justice in 1994.

  1. ^ "قصة من تاريخ النشاط العسكري الفلسطيني... عندما حاربت منظمة التحرير مع القذافي ضد تشاد - رصيف22". 4 December 2018.
  2. ^ Talhami, Ghada Hashem (30 November 2018). Palestinian Refugees: Pawns to Political Actors. Nova Publishers. ISBN 9781590336496 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Touchard, Laurent (21 October 2014). "Libye : la deuxième vie de Khalifa Haftar au Tchad et la défaite finale de Ouadi Doum". Jeune Afrique. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  4. ^ Metz 2004, p. 254.
  5. ^ The Americana Annual, 1988, 180
  6. ^ Azevedo 1998, p. 119.
  7. ^ The Economic Cost of Soviet Military Manpower Requirements, 143
  8. ^ a b c Pollack 2002, p. 397
  9. ^ Neville 2018, p. 16.
  10. ^ Clayton 1998, p. 161.
  11. ^ Simons 2004, p. 58
  12. ^ Pollack 2002, pp. 382–385
  13. ^ Nolutshungu 1995, p. 212.
  14. ^ Azevedo 1998, p. 124.