Abéché

Abéché was the seat of the Ouaddai sultanate and ran the caravan trade across this part of the Sahara until the French took it in nineteen twelve. The nineteenth century mosque still stands on the main square, the sultans lie buried nearby, and the walled ruins of the earlier capital at Ouara lie out in the bush to the north. Camels and rugs still change hands at the market. The town now works mainly as a staging post for the Sudanese refugee response, and the war next door has brought drone strikes and armed clashes close, so travellers pass through with an escort rather than stopping.