Oil wealth bypasses ordinary Chadians

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N'DJAMENA, Chad -- Like most gasoline vendors in this sun-drenched capital, Zachariah Suileman sells gasoline in old liquor bottles, which seems ironic for a country that produces more than 160,000 barrels of oil per day.

"Our oil is refined far away, and when it comes back to us, we can barely afford to buy it, except in small amounts. That's why it's sold in bottles," said Mr. Suileman, who, even with gasoline selling at $6 a gallon, barely can afford to support his wife and six children.

For Mr. Suileman and nearly 10 million other ordinary Chadians, the oil riches have yet to raise living standards in a country perennially ranked among the world's poorest.

Three years after Chad began shipping its oil -- collecting nearly $400 million to date -- few people outside N'Djamena have access to electricity, running water, paved roads or health clinics. Public schools are nonexistent. Life expectancy is 46 years for men and slightly longer for women.

Chad appears to have followed the path taken by other African oil-producing states -- Angola, Nigeria and Sudan, among them -- whose leaders have used much of the oil revenues to beef up their military forces against opposition groups and rebel movements seeking larger shares of the wealth.

"Chad was supposed to be different. The oil money was supposed to help the poor, but we're not seeing that," said Massalbaye Tenebaye, president of the country's Human Rights Commission.

The thwarted hopes of many have turned into resentment toward the government of President Idriss Deby, widely perceived here as using the country's oil wealth to enrich himself and those close to him. It's a perception shared by corruption watchdog Transparency International, which last year rated Chad the most corrupt country in Africa.

Growing anger has emboldened rebel groups, which have tried twice to overthrow the Deby government in the past two months.

[His victory in May 3 presidential elections was confirmed Sunday, with officials saying he won 77.5 percent of the vote, Agence France-Presse reported. Four other virtually unknown candidates won from 3.7 percent to 8.8 percent of the vote.

[Election commission President Ahmat Mahamat Bachir said turnout was 61.5 percent of the 5.7 million eligible voters, though independent observers called the participation lackluster.]