The Great Transhumances of Chad’s Camel Herders
Mahamat Ismaïl is staying in the Chari Department, south of N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, for most of the dry season. He lives with his wife and children in a camp set up on agricultural land with the consent of the landowners. of the area’s sedentary communities, who value the manure the animals provide. His herd consists of dromedaries, goats, and sheep, which benefit from the proximity of the Chari River and surrounding grazing areas surrounding areas.
Interview with Mahamat Ismaïl
Mahamat Ismaïl, a Camel Herder on the Roads of the Chari
At the beginning of the rainy season, when the field on which the camp is set up is installed needs to be cultivated, Mahamat Ismaïl and his family move north, toward Kanem and the Lake Province. The whole family makes this transhumance of 200 to 300 kilometers.
“The nomadic person has no country. At that time, during the summer, people face great difficulties, especially drought.”
This movement northward helps avoid the difficulties in moving the herd caused by fields being put under cultivation, and allows access to Sahelian rangelands that have become green again for two or three months, away from agricultural areas.
“Livestock, Our Only Wealth”
Their herd is dominated by dromedaries, the animals at the heart of the Ouled Rachid way of life. Around them are goats, sheep, and sometimes a few cattle. These animals support the household economy: milk for the family, meat and animals sold at market, and small incomes from milking or seasonal trade.
“Our animals are our only wealth, what we have inherited from our fathers and grandfathers.”
Each year, the family travels nearly 1,500 km:
- around 500 km between Chari, Kanem, and the Lake region during the rainy season,
- then up to 1,000 km toward Moyen Chari, where only the dromedaries move down during the dry season to cross the wooded savannas of southern Chad.
The Effects of Climate Change
Mahamat’s route follows environmental constraints: drought, lack of pasture, animal diseases, and increasing land pressure. The lands around Mandelia have shrunk, contested between rainfed agriculture, irrigated farming areas, and livestock corridors.
“The work of transhumance has become very difficult because of climate problems, and the lack of water and feed for the animals. We have persevered, but today’s generation is different.”
After three or four months, when the northern rangelands have become too poor and the ponds too dry for the herd to survive, the family moves back down to the more humid Chari area.
Love of a Way of Life
Yet despite these difficulties, Mohammed proudly describes the beauty of his pastoral life: the camel calves born during the rainy season, the smell of fresh grass, the feeling of freedom while walking at dawn, and the milk shared as children play around the camp.
“When the grass is green and the animals are calm, my heart is at peace.”
Like many Ouled Rachid groups settled in the Chari area since the 1980s, Mohammed’s family also carries the memory of migrations forced by conflicts in Batha and the central part of the country. Even today, this history shapes their routes and the way they move between regions.
Immersive 360° Transhumance
The transhumance of Mohamed Ismaïl’s dromedaries was filmed in June 2025.
A photographic slideshow documenting the transhumance
Livestock Research Institute for Development (IRED)
The Institut de Recherche en Élevage pour le Développement (IRED), based in N’Djamena, is a major scientific actor in Central Africa. Its work on animal health, pastoral systems, and livestock dynamics has been essential in documenting, within Transhumances 360°, the realities of herders in the canton of Mandelia.
The film also draws on the FEF project “Strengthening IRED’s Capacity in Livestock Research and Analysis for Food Security in Chad,” coordinated by the Institut de Recherche en Élevage pour le Développement (IRED) in partnership with CIRAD, which aims to improve animal health, secure pastoral rangelands, and enhance the resilience of transhumant households in the face of climatic and epizootic shocks.