N'Djamena is founded as Fort-Lamy by the French commander Émile Gentil.

mile Gentil (French pronunciation: [emil ti]; 4 April 1866 30 March 1914) was a French colonial administrator, naval officer, and military leader.

Born at Volmunster in the department of Moselle, he later attended the cole Navale, the school that formed French naval officers. As an ensign, he was assigned to conduct hydrographic soundings along the Gabonese coast from 1890 to 1892. That year, he joined the colonial administration in Gabon.

N'Djamena (UK: ən-jam-AY-nə, US: ən-jah-MAY-nə; French: N'Djaména, pronounced [n(ə)dʒamena]; Arabic: انجمينا, romanized: Injamīnā) is the capital and largest city of Chad. It is also a special statute region, divided into 10 districts or arrondissements.

It is a regional market for livestock, salt, dates, and grains. Meat, fish and cotton processing are the chief industries, and the city continues to serve as the centre of economic activity in Chad.

It is a port city located at the confluence of the Logone River with the Chari River, forming a transborder agglomeration with the city of Kousséri (in Cameroon), capital of the Department of Logone-et-Chari, which is on the west bank of both rivers. It had 1,093,492 inhabitants in 2013.