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Chad
French Military Withdrawal
After over seven decades of military presence, France completed its withdrawal from the African country Chad this past week. The removal of French military presence was ordered in November 2024 by the administration of Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who characterized the cooperation agreements in place between the two countries as “obsolete.” Chad was a part of the French colonial empire from 1900 to 1960, and ever since, France has maintained its influence through military presence as well as cultural and economic factors. Chad was France’s last outpost of military presence in Africa’s broader Sahel region, between the Sahara and sub-Saharan Africa, after being pushed out by military governments in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
This map depicts major French military operations in Africa in late January, including the operation to remove its forces from Chad.
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Serbia
Striking Students on 2-Day March
Hundreds of striking students marched through the Serbian countryside Friday as they took their anti-corruption protest toward the city of Novi Sad, where they plan to blockade three bridges over the River Danube this weekend. The bridge blockade planned for Saturday will mark three months since a huge concrete construction at the railway station collapsed in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024, leaving 15 people dead. What started two months ago as a protest against suspected corruption in construction contracts has grown into the most serious challenge in years to President Aleksandar Vucic. Attacks by supporters of the government, including car ramming into student protestors on several occasions, have added urgency and broadened the movement. The demonstrations have already forced the resignation of prime minister Milos Vucevic this week, along with various concessions from authorities, which protesters say is not enough.
This map depicts the student protest organization’s march route from the Serbian capital of Belgrade to Novi Sad. Click on the map to learn more.
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New Zealand
Mountain Granted Personhood
The government of New Zealand has granted legal personhood to Mt. Taranaki (“Taranaki Maunga” in Māori) as part of an effort to compensate the Indigenous Māori people for abuses during New Zealand’s colonization. The Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill, passed by parliament yesterday, gives the mountain a legal name and protects the surrounding land and peaks, formally recognizing the Māori belief that natural features are living beings, and even ancestors. While the mountain legally owns itself, it will be managed by a group of representatives from local tribes and the government. Access to the mountain will remain open to all New Zealanders. This is actually the third instance of a natural feature being granted personhood in New Zealand, the first being the Urewera native forest in 2014, followed by the Whanganui River in 2017.
This interactive map from the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN) depicts places in the world where natural features are protected by being granted legal rights. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: The Tibetan government-in-exile, home to the Dalai Lama, can be found in what country and city?
A: Dharamsala, India
Nestled in the Dhauladhar range of the Himalayas, Dharamsala is the winter capital of the northernmost Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It is also home to a large population of the Tibetan refugees in India and their Tibetan Government-in-exile (The Central Tibetan Administration or CTA) and is widely known as “Little Lhasa”. The Chinese army crushed the Tibetan national uprising of Lhasa in 1959, which led to the flight of the Dalai Lama and some 80,000 Tibetans who sought refuge in India, Nepal, and Bhutan. The influx of refugees continues even today. Currently, the Tibetan exile population is over 140,000, of which about 100,000 are based in India. The Tibetan people, both in and outside Tibet, look to the CTA as their sole and legitimate representative.
Source
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Q: What was the first state to officially adopt a state soil, designating it in 1979?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in Monday’s DailyGeo.
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