Lol Mahamat Choua

Who is Lol Mahamat Choua?

Lol Mahamat Choua is a Chadian politician who served as his country's head of state for four months in 1979. He is the President of the Rally for Democracy and Progress political party.

An adherent of Islam and a member of the Kanembu ethnic group, Choua came into power during the First Chadian Civil War. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Chad, a Kanembu rebel group backed by Nigeria, along with the central government, the Armed Forces of the North and the People's Armed Forces were the main combatants. When a peace conference was organized in Kano, Nigeria, the MPLT, which suffered from a lack of members, chose Lol to head its delegation to meeting.

Under Nigerian pressure, Lol was made head of the Transitional Government of National Unity on April 29, 1979, by the four factions present at Kano I. The GUNT included 21 ministers, of whom 11 were northerners and 10 were southerners. Goukouni Oueddei, head of the FAP, became Interior Minister, Hissène Habré became Defence Minister, and Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué, leader of the Chadian Armed Forces, became vice-president. But the transitional government excluded all the pro-Libyan forces; as a result, a rival government, backed by Muammar al-Gaddafi, was formed; it was called the Democratic Revolutionary Council, and it was headed by Ahmat Acyl, an Arab.