Countries where ASL or a derivative of ASL is the national or a widespread language include Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana ( with BSL ), Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, the Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d ' Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya ( minority use ), Liberia, Madagascar ( minority use ), Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Philippines ( L2 use ), Puerto Rico, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Trinidad and Tobago, Togo, and Zimbabwe ( with ZSL ).

Chad (; ), officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa.

In the prehistoric period, Chad was much wetter than it is today, as evidenced by large game animals depicted in rock paintings in the Tibesti and Borkou regions.

Recent linguistic research suggests that all of Africa's major language groupings south of the Sahara Desert ( except Khoisan, which is not considered a valid genetic grouping anyway ), i. e. the Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan and Niger – Congo phyla, originated in prehistoric times in a narrow band between Lake Chad and the Nile Valley.

Chad is a land-locked country in north central Africa measuring, roughly three times the size of California.

The country's topography is generally flat, with the elevation gradually rising as one moves north and east away from Lake Chad.

The highest point in Chad is Emi Koussi, a mountain that rises in the northern Tibesti Mountains.

Lake Chad is the second largest lake in west Africa and is one of the most important wetlands on the continent.

Although Chadian society is economically, socially, and culturally fragmented, the country's geography is unified by the Lake Chad Basin.

Once a huge inland sea ( the Pale-Chadian Sea ) whose only remnant is shallow Lake Chad, this vast depression extends west into Nigeria and Niger.

The larger, northern portion of the basin is bounded within Chad by the Tibesti Mountains in the northwest, the Ennedi Plateau in the northeast, the Ouaddaï Highlands in the east along the border with Sudan, the Guéra Massif in central Chad, and the Mandara Mountains along Chad's southwestern border with Cameroon.

Lake Chad, located in the southwestern part of the basin at an altitude of 282 meters, surprisingly does not mark the basin's lowest point ; instead, this is found in the Bodele and Djourab regions in the north-central and northeastern parts of the country, respectively.

Fed by rivers of Central African Republic, as well as by the Bahr Salamat, Bahr Aouk, and Bahr Sara rivers of southeastern Chad, the Chari River is about 1, 200 kilometers long.

The seventh largest lake in the world ( and the fourth largest in Africa ), Lake Chad is located in the sahelian zone, a region just south of the Sahara Desert.

Agriculture is also common in the marshlands east of Lake Chad and near swamps or wells.

This is a list of the extreme points of Chad, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.

This is particularly so in Chad, where the openness of the terrain, marginal rainfall, frequent drought and famine, and low population densities have encouraged physical and linguistic mobility.

Politics of Chad takes place in a framework of a presidential republic, whereby the President of Chad is both head of state and head of government.

This is a chart of trend of gross domestic product of Chad at market prices estimated by the International Monetary Fund with figures in millions of CFA Francs.

Lake Chad also changes greatly in size from one year to another.

In 1906, the Oubangui-Chari territory was united with the Chad colony ; in 1910, it became one of the four territories of the Federation of French Equatorial Africa ( AEF ), along with Chad, Middle Congo, and Gabon.

), or when one allied country is in war with another ( as is Chad – Sudan ).

Chad is one of President Bozizé's closest allies.

Closer to the present, Lake Chad was first surveyed by Europeans in 1823, and it was considered to be one of the largest lakes in the world then.

The team produced one notable professional baseball player in Chad Zerbe who pitched for the San Francisco Giants from 2000-2003 including Three appearances in the 2002 World Series against the Anaheim Angels.

Camels trample the soil in the semiarid Sahel as they move to water holes such as this one in Chad.

After Bokassa reciprocated by meeting Tombalbaye on 2 April 1966 along the southern border of Chad at Fort Archambault, the two decided to help one another if either was in danger of losing power.

Omega is one suggested origin for Chad

Chad Allan and the Reflections then signed with Quality Records and released several flop singles in 1963 / 64, including one mis-credited to Bob Ashley & The Reflections.

Reporter Chad Garrison spoke with George Gaines, a nephew of Lloyd's who was one of only two surviving family members who had been alive when Lloyd disappeared, although he had only been an infant at the time, and other, younger descendants.

They consist of imaginary headlines, classified ads, and quotations from the works of the character Chad C. Mulligan, a pop sociologist who comments wryly on his surroundings and in one chapter, actual headlines from the 1960s.

He grew up with two younger brothers, one of whom, Ola, also became a sumo wrestler for a brief period after Chad.

In other words, Bede considered himself to stand in the spiritual lineage of Chad and had gathered information from at least one who knew him personally.

Chad was one of four brothers, all active in the Anglo-Saxon church.

Despite his regard for Chad, Theodore ordered him to ride on long journeys and went so far as to lift him into the saddle on one occasion.

They were examined by the Oxford Archeological Laboratory by carbon dating techniques in 1985, and all but one of the bones ( which was a third femur, and therefore could not have come from Bishop Chad ) were dated to the seventh century, and were authenticated as ' true relics ' by the Vatican authorities.

Chad remains a fairly popular given name, one of the few personal names current among 7th century Anglo-Saxons to do so.

Bentley is one of the main subjects in the documentary My Big Break, directed by Tony Zierra, which follows Bentley and three of his former roommates, Chad Lindberg, Brad Rowe and Greg Fawcett, as they pursue their dream to become successful actors in Hollywood.

During the 1960s, he was one half of the folk duo Chad & Jeremy, who had little success in the UK but were an object of interest to American audiences.

Once the core ethnic group of the Kanem-Borno Empire, whose territories at one time included northeastern Nigeria and southern Libya, the Kanembu retain ties beyond the borders of Chad.

The Chari and Logone Rivers, both of which originate in the Central African Republic and flow northward, provide most of the surface water entering Lake Chad.

The Lake Chad Basin embraces a great range of tropical climates from north to south, although most of these climates tend to be dry.

The decision came after several mass slaughters of African elephants, most notably the 2006 Zakouma elephant slaughter in Chad.

As the Sahara dried after 2000 BCE, the north of Niger became the desert it is today, with settlements and trade routes clinging to the Air in the north, the Kaouar and shore of Lake Chad in the west, and ( apart for a scattering of oases ) most people living along what is now the southern border with Nigeria and the southwest of the country.

* Chad Broskey, actor, most often on the Disney Channel

Chad Gilbert has said that Radiosurgery " is the most upbeat, fun record we've ever recorded.

The most prominent movement in this period was the FROLINAT, or ' National Liberation Front of Chad ', based in Sudan.

Smith was born Chad Smith on October 25, 1961 in Saint Paul, Minnesota but spent most of his childhood in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan where he attended Andover High School and graduated from Lahser High School in 1980.

This organization, known as World Class II: The Next Generation, featured only a few of the surviving wrestlers from the original WCCW group ( most notably Chris Adams, Iceman Parsons and Maniac Mike Davis ), as well as Gary's son, Chad Hart ; it folded in less than a year.

This proposal has been developed further by, in particular, Lionel Bender and Christopher Ehret ; Bender sees it as an independent subfamily of Nilo-Saharan, while Ehret, based on 565 claimed cognates, regards it as most closely related to the Maban languages of western Sudan and eastern Chad.

In the USA, apl. de. ap of The Black Eyed Peas, Chad Hugo of The Neptunes and N. E. R. D, and Hodgy Beats of OFWGKTA ( Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All ) and MellowHype are cited as the most successful Filipino-Americans in the music industry.

A second feature are the wadis, which range from seasonal watercourses that flood only occasionally during the wet season to large wadis that flood for most of the rains and flow from western Darfur hundreds of miles west to Lake Chad.

* Chad Stanley, Former NFL Punter, Tied NFL record for most punts in a season ( 114 )

It is one of the most competitive colleges to gain entry to and is named after St Chad of Mercia, a 7th-century bishop.

The traditional heartland of the Fur is the mountainous region around Jebel Sî and Jebel Marra Wadi Salih and Zaligi ; today, however, most of them live in the lower country west and southwest of that area, between 11-14 N and 23-26 E. Some Fur live across the border in Chad, many of them refugees.

As governor of Chad during most of World War II, he helped build support for the Free French in 1940, leading to broad electoral support for Charles De Gaulle's group after the war.

' Chad Fischer went on to form the band Lazlo Bane, most known for original opening credits of the TV show Scrubs.

Less than 500 individuals are thought to exist in the wild today, most of the animals being found between the Termit area of Niger and the Bodélé region of western Chad.

They lost three of their most productive players from the 2010, receivers Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco along with defensive back Johnathan Joseph, while quarterback Carson Palmer, the team's starter since 2004, refused to play for them anymore ( he was traded midway through the season ).

Mimi is a name applied to several distinct and not particularly closely related Nilo-Saharan languages of the Wadai area of Chad, most commonly Amdang ( Doornbos, van Bulck, Jungraithmayr ) but also including two possibly Maban languages: Mimi of Nachtigal and Mimi of Decorse.

While at Bradenton, Ellinger had a significant role in developing many of the most outstanding of American soccer players, including Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey, Edward Johnson, Chad Marshall, Freddy Adu, Eddie Gaven, Danny Szetela, and Jonathan Spector.

During the 2003 and 2004 season, Fraser helped mentor two of MLS's most promising young defenders, Nat Borchers and Chad Marshall.

Nowadays the army concentrates on peace-keeping and peace-enforcing operations and has been involved in several operations ( in Lebanon between 1979 and 1985, and the former Yugoslavia ( Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Kosovo ) 1991-present, but also in Cambodia 1992 – 1994, Haiti 1995 – 1996, Cyprus 1998 – 1999, Eritrea and Ethiopia 2001, and most recent in Iraq 2003 – 2005, Afghanistan 2002 – 2010 and Chad 2008 – 2009 ).