Battle of Kousséri The battle of Kousséri originated in French plans to occupy the Chari - Baguirmi region . In 1899 – 1900 , the French organized three armed columns , one proceeding north from Congo , one east from Niger and another south from Algeria . The objective was to link all French possessions in Western Africa , and this was achieved April 21 , 1900 on the right bank of the Chari in what is now Chad opposite Kousséri , in what today is northern Cameroon . Prelude . In 1899 , Sudanese warlord Rabih az - Zubayr could field some 10 , 000 infantry and cavalry , all provided with rifles ( except for 400 rifles , these were mostly obsolete ) , plus a great number of auxiliary troops equipped with lances or bows . His forces held fortified garrisons at Baggara and Karnak Logone . In 1899 , Rabih received in Dikoa the French representative Ferdinand de Béhagle . The talks between them degenerated , and Béhagle was arrested . On July 17 , 1899 , Lieutenant Bretonnet , whose force was then sent by France against Rabih , was killed with most of his men at Togbao at the edge of the Chari River , present - day Sarh . Rabih gained three cannons from this victory ( which the French later retook at Kousséri ) and ordered his son Fadlallah , whom he had left in Dikoa , to hang Béhagle . In response , a French column proceeding from Gabon and led by Émile Gentil , supported by the steamboat Leon Blot , confronted Rabih at Kouno at the end of the year . The French were pushed back , suffering losses , but regrouped and continued to the town of Kousséri . Here , they linked up with the Lamy column ( proceeding from Algeria ) and the former Voulet - Chanoine Mission , proceeding from Niger . This column was now commanded by Joalland - Meynier , after Voulet and Chanoine murdered the French officer sent to relieve them , when news reached the European press of the mission ' s brutality to local people . Lamy took command of the united forces . Battle . The final showdown between Rabih and the French took place on April 22 , 1900 . The French forces consisted of 700 troops , plus the 600 riflemen and 200 cavalry provided by the allied Baguirmians . Leaving Kousséri the French in three columns attacked Rabih ' s camp , and in the ensuing battle , the French commander Major Amédée - François Lamy was killed . However , Rabih ' s forces were overwhelmed and , while attempting to flee across the Chari River , Rabih was killed . Significance . With the defeat of Rabih ' s forces , the French ensured their control over most of Chad , which became part of the French colonial empire . The march of the infamous Voulet - Chanoine Mission through modern Burkina Faso and Niger brought nominal protectorate status to these areas , and forces from Algeria showed that a cross - saharan conquest and administration was possible . Gentile ' s mission from Gabon , added to these , helped define the practical borders of French and British imperial control , and linked the three most stable French colonial possessions in Africa ( Senegal and the Upper Niger River Valley , Gabon and Congo - Brazzaville , and Algeria ) . In French colonial histories , the Battle of Kousséri is usually seen as the ending point of the Scramble for Africa and the beginning of the " pacification " phase of French West and Equatorial Africa .