Transparency and accountability in the use of petroleum revenues: A fundamental ingredient for security, reconstruction, and reconciliation in Africa’s booming petro-states

Last October, the first oil tanker left the waters off Kribi, Cameroon, its belly filled with 950,000 barrels of crude oil and the hopes of millions of Chadians to whom the oil belongs. With this shipment, Chad joins the growing ranks of African countries exporting “black gold.” More than US$120 million in oil revenues will flow into Chad this year. But who will these new riches benefit? Will President Idriss Deby, who came to power in a 1990 military coup and has stayed in power through dubious elections, keep his promises to use the money wisely? Decades of conflict have left Chad as one of the poorest countries in the world – will oil revenues do anything to foster security, reconstruction, and reconciliation?