Conversely, Chad only lost 1,000 men and very little military equipment (because they hardly had any). In total, 7,500 men were killed and 1.5 billion dollars worth of military equipment was destroyed or captured. This last phase began in 1986 and ended a year later with a heavy defeat inflicted on the Libyan army by the Chadians.
The Toyota War is the name given to the last phase of the Chad-Libyan War that raged on for almost a decade, yet did not have relevance until its last phase. The historical event demonstrated how a civilian truck was able to shape international borders, tipping the balance in favour of the inferior party to the conflict. This little-known story is about how an army comprising 400 Toyota pickups of the Chadian army outmanoeuvred and overwhelmed a vastly superior force equipped with soviet-era tanks and aircrafts of the Libyan army. However, its popularity among terrorist groups, militias, as well as developing countries’ national armies only gained ground in the 80’s when a conflict between Chad and Libya proved the trucks’ effectiveness as war machines simultaneously calling into question the efficacy of traditional war strategies and military logistics. This is no surprise when one considers that the Toyota Land Cruiser was initially designed to be a military car inspired by the famous Jeep Willis at the time Japan was occupied by the US after Japan´s defeat in World War II. This is because, if the AK47 is the favourite weapon for militias in developing countries, the Toyota Hilux and Land Cruiser are the militia’s trucks of choice. We have seen in recent newscasts that in many of today´s conflicts, there’s a Toyota truck no matter how remote the country is. However, what they do not tell you is how implicated in wars and conflicts the truck has been due to the very same characteristics. When you go to a Toyota distributor to buy a Toyota Land Cruiser or a Toyota Hilux, what they proudly tell you is how resistant, fast and reliable the truck is.
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