1553 CHAD - On the road through the dead heart of Africa

Chad is a landlocked country in Central Africa, located at south to Libya and composed of a desert zone in the north, an arid Sahelian belt in the centre and a more fertile Sudanese savanna zone in the south. Because of the long distance from the sea and the country's largely desert climate, it is sometimes referred to as the "Dead Heart of Africa". As a result is the seventh poorest country in the world, with 80% of the population living below the poverty line. Also over 80% of the population relies on subsistence farming and livestock raising for its livelihoo. The Sahel is ideal pastureland for large herds of commercial cattle and for goats, sheep, donkeys and horses. More than half of Chadians are muslims, largely concentrated in northern and eastern of the country.

Civil war crippled the development of transport infrastructure; so in 1987, Chad had only 30km of paved roads. Successive road rehabilitation projects improved the network to 550km by 2004. Nevertheless, the road network is limited, especially in the north and east of the country. Roads are often unusable for several months of the year, and railway doesn't exist. Actually In the north roads are merely tracks across the desert and land mines continue to present a danger. Draft animals (horses, donkeys and camels) remain important in much of the country.

About the stamp
The stamp is part of the serie Safeguard Lake Chad, issued on 2012.

References
Chad - Wikipedia
Transport in Chad - Wikipedia

Sender:
Sent from N'Djamena (Chad), on 01.02.2015