A piece of waste material removed from card or tape by punching.

A landlocked country in northern central Africa; population 14,000,000 (estimated 2015); capital, N'Djamena; official languages, French and Arabic.

Much of the country lies in the Sahel, as well as the Sahara Desert in the north. A French colony from 1913, Chad became autonomous within the French Community in 1958 and fully independent as a republic in 1960. The country has been troubled by rebellions in the north since 1998