The border between Chad and Libya extends for 1,050 km in an east-to-west direction from the tripoint with Sudan to the tripoint with Niger following straight lines. The boundary originally vaguely defined the edges of French, British, and Italian colonial spheres of influence in northern Africa. Libya gained independence following World War II, and there were no issues with the frontier until after Chad’s independence from France in 1960. Libya then moved to occupy and claim the town of Aouzou and the adjacent borderlands. The dispute was adjudicated by the International Court of Justice resulting in a judgment in 1994, which deferred to and better defined the original colonial boundary.