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N'Djamena

Capital of ChadAt the point where the Logone River flows into the Chari, N'Djamena lies in southwestern Chad on the border with Cameroon. The Cameroonian town of Kousséri is just across the river.

Why it's the capital

The French founded the town as Fort-Lamy, a military outpost, and it grew into a major trading city and the capital of Chad. In 1973, after independence, President François Tombalbaye renamed it N'Djamena as part of a programme to replace colonial names with local ones.

Fun facts

  1. Fort-Lamy was named after Amédée-François Lamy, a French officer killed in 1900 in the Battle of Kousséri.
  2. The name N'Djamena comes from the Arabic name of a nearby village, Niǧāmīnā, which means "place of rest".
  3. The Chad National Museum in the city shows part of the skull of Toumaï, a Sahelanthropus found in northern Chad and thought to be one of the earliest humans.

Finding it on the globe

Find Lake Chad, where Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria meet, then go a short way southeast. N'Djamena is there, on Chad's border with Cameroon.

Sources: Wikipedia: N'Djamena, Wikipedia: Battle of Kousséri, Wikipedia: Lake Chad