River · Chad
Chari
Chari is the longest river of Chad, in Central Africa. It travels about 1400 kilometres towards the north and ends in Lake Chad, a huge and very shallow lake shared by several countries.
Picture credit: Nelson_djoub (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Souleymane Torbo (CC BY-SA 4.0) · David Stanley (CC BY 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is the Chari?
The river starts here: Highlands of the Central African Republic.
It ends in the Lake Chad.
Countries on the river: Chad.
The story behind it
The Chari begins far in the south, in the highlands of the Central African Republic, and flows north through hot savanna country. Elephants, hippos and crocodiles live along its banks, and huge flocks of birds gather where the water spreads out. Near the city of N'Djamena the river is wide and busy with fishing canoes, because the Chari carries most of the water that keeps Lake Chad alive. In the rainy season it swells and floods the flat land, leaving behind rich mud where farmers grow millet and rice. In the dry months it shrinks so much that sandbanks appear in the middle. Books do not always agree on how long the Chari really is, because it is formed where several rivers join. For the people of Chad it is simply the river that brings fish, water and life.
Questions children ask
How long is the Chari?
The Chari is about 1400 kilometres long. That makes it the longest river in Chad and one of the most important rivers of Central Africa.
Which country does the Chari flow through?
Here the Chari counts as the river of Chad, where it is the longest of all. Its water is collected much further south, in the highlands, before it reaches Chadian soil.
Where does the Chari end?
The Chari ends in Lake Chad, a wide and shallow lake in the middle of Africa. Almost all of the water in that lake is brought there by this one river.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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