Tensions surrounding logistics infrastructure in N’Djamena, Chad

Located on the border with Cameroon, N’Djamena remains Chad’s main commercial and transport hub. Across the river from Kousseri, Ngueli hosts the country’s most important border post. Ngueli showcases the importance of logistic activities in cities across the African continent. Relying on ethnographic observation and qualitative interviews and taking the lived experience of truck drivers as its point of departure, the article analyses how institutional reforms, regulatory changes and infrastructure investment shape commercial flows passing through Ngueli. Ostensibly invested in ambitious plans for its transformation, the customs authorities and a private operator jointly govern what is generally seen as an inefficient logistics platform. Faced with selective enforcement, corruption and unattractive logistic services, freight forwarders and shippers rely on a proven repertoire of adaptation, resistance, and circumvention.