Early 20th century N'Djamena was founded as
Fort-Lamy by French commander
Émile Gentil on 29 May 1900, named after
Amédée-François Lamy, an army officer who had been killed in the
Battle of Kousséri about a month earlier. It was merely a colonial outpost in its early days, and until the 1920s, the city was entirely under French military rule. It has since expanded into a major trading city and became the capital of the region and nation. During the
Second World War, the French relied upon the city's airport to move troops and supplies. On 21 January 1942, a lone
German Heinkel He 111 of the
Sonderkommando Blaich successfully bombed the airfield at Fort-Lamy, destroying oil supplies and ten aircraft. Fort-Lamy received its first bank branch in 1950, when the Paris-based
Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale opened a branch there.
Late 20th century Chad gained its independence from France in 1960. On 6 April 1973,
President François Tombalbaye The city was occupied by
Libya during the 1980–81 Libyan intervention as part of the
Chadian–Libyan conflict, and the associated
Transitional Government of National Unity. The city was partly destroyed during the
Chadian Civil War in 1979 and again in 1980. In these years, almost all of the population fled the town, seeking refuge on the opposite bank of the
Chari River in Cameroon, next to the city of
Kousséri. The residents did not return until 1981–82, after the end of the clashes. Until 1984, facilities and services were subject to strict rationing, and schools remained closed. The period of turmoil in the city was started by the abortive coup attempted by the northerner Prime Minister
Hissène Habré against the southerner President
Félix Malloum: while Malloum and the national army loyal to him were defeated, the intervention in the battle of other northern factions rival to that of Habré complicated the situation. A temporary truce was reached in 1979 through international mediation, establishing the warlord
Goukouni Oueddei as head of a government of national unity with his rival Habré as Defense Minister. The intense rivalry between Goukouni and Habré caused the eruption of new clashes in the city in 1980; N'Djamena found itself divided into sectors controlled by the various warlords. The tug-of-war reached a conclusion after many months only when Goukouni asked for the intervention of the Libyans, whose tanks overwhelmed Habré's defenses in the capital. {{Historical populations Following differences between Goukouni and
Muammar Gaddafi and international disapproval of Libyan intervention, the Libyan troops left the capital and Chad in 1981. This opened the door to Habré, who marched on N'Djamena, occupying the city with little resistance in 1982 and installing himself as the new president. He was eventually dislodged in a similar fashion in 1990 by a former general of his,
Idriss Déby. The city had only 9,976 inhabitants in 1937, but a decade later, in 1947, the population had almost doubled to 18,435. In 1968, after independence, the population reached 126,483. In 1993, it surpassed half a million with 529,555. A good deal of this growth has been due to refugees fleeing into N'Djamena for security, although many people fled N'Djamena, also depending on the political situation. in the
Battle of N'Djamena. The city was once again attacked on 2 February 2008, by
UFDD and
RFC rebels in the
Battle of N'Djamena (2008). , French military forces maintained a base in N'Djamena to counter rebels from the
Sahel. == Geography ==