Before the rise of the Kanem Empire in the region, major fighting in the area was fought between the eastern Zambir people and the Kamburi people of the north-west. However, when the Semitic and Berber people from the north came with the Kanem Empire, ethnic tensions grew before the empire, along with its people, dispersed. This led the Zambir and Kamburi people to begin clashes of the territory again before the French finally assimilated the region into the French Equatorial Africa colony. However, poor ability to control the ethnic tension allowed periodic fights to continue until the granting of overseas territory status to Chad and Kamburi-Zambir. The split between the colonies, and the inability to make distinctions between the true owners of Sarh would eventually contribute to the ou