Chad 24°E. Chad is bounded to the north by Libya, to the east by Sudan, to the west by Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon, and to the south by the Central African Republic. The country's capital is from the nearest seaport, Douala, Cameroon. Because of this distance from the sea and the country's largely desert climate, Chad is sometimes referred to as the "Dead Heart of Africa". The dominant physical structure is a wide basin bounded to the north and east by the Ennedi Plateau and Tibesti Mountains, which include Emi Koussi, a dormant volcano that reaches above sea level. Lake Chad,
Languages of Chad teachers for the deaf train in Nigeria. ("Ethnologue" lists 54 Chadic languages in Chad altogether, many of them small.) Languages of Chad Chad has two official languages, French and Modern Standard Arabic, and over 120 indigenous languages. A vernacular version of Arabic, Chadian Arabic, is the lingua franca. Of the two official languages, French has the most speakers in Chad (though Chadian Arabic has more speakers in Chad than both French and Standard Arabic) . Chad submitted an application to join the Arab League as a member state on 25 March 2014, which is still pending. Chadian Sign Language is