mainly Christian and animist, with a minority of Muslims. Genetics Analysis of classic genetic markers and DNA polymorphisms by Excoffier et al. (1987) found that the Sara are most closely related to the Kunama people of Eritrea. Both populations speak languages from the Nilo-Saharan family. They are also similar to West African populations, but biologically distinct from the surrounding Cushitic and Ethiopian Semitic Afro-Asiatic-speaking groups. Notable Sara people Sosthene Moguenara, Chadian-born German track and field athlete Fidèle Moungar, Prime Minister of Chad in 1993, president of Action for Unity and Socialism Noël Milarew Odingar, who overthrew Tombalbaye during the 1975 coup Kalthouma Nguembang, only woman in Chadian National Assembly in 1968 François Tombalbaye, first President of Chad Japhet N'Doram See also Demographics of Chad Demographics of the Central African Republic References Bibliography René Lemarchand, The Politics of Sara Ethnicity: A Note on the Origins of the Civil War in Chad, in: Cahiers d'Études africaines, Vol. 20, Cahier 80 (1980) René Lemarchand, Chad: The Misadventures of the North-South Dialectic, in: African Studies Review, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Sept., 1986) Mario Azevedo, The Human Price of Development: The Brazzaville Railroad and the Sara of Chad, in: African Studies Review, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1981) Mario Azevedo, Power and Slavery in Central Africa: Chad (1890-1925), in: The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 67, No. 3 (Autumn, 1982) Robert Jaulin, La Mort Sara, Paris, 10/18, 1971 (1967) Ethnic groups in Chad Ethnic groups in the Central African Republic French West Africa