A landlocked country situated in northern Central Africa, the Republic of Chad has an area of 1,284,000 sq km (495,755 sq mi), extending 1,765 km (1,097 mi) north–south and 1,030 km (640 mi) east–west. Comparatively, the area occupied by Chad is slightly more than three times the size of the state of California. It is bounded on the north by Libya, on the east by the Sudan, on the south by the Central African Republic, on the southwest by Cameroon, and on the west by Nigeria and Niger, with a total boundary length of 5,968 km (3,708 mi).
The Aozou Strip of Chad, an area along the northern border of about 114,000 sq km (about 44,000 sq mi), was occupied and annexed by Libya in 1973. In February 1994, the International Court of Justice rejected Libya's claim to the territory. Armed clashes broke out in 1983 with Nigeria over several islands in Lake Chad that had emerged as the water level fell.
Chad's capital city, N'Djamena, is located in the southwestern part of the country.