Prompted by several messages, a personal first-hand assessment of the present situation in Chad
APPLICABLE TO THE FAYA - BORKU - TIBESTI REGION ONLY

Overall safety / security

Never had any feelings of discomfort, attitude of both officialdom and locals very relaxed and friendly. Very clearly the Tibus are in complete control of the area, and are fully aware of what is going on. (A good example: we had some disagreement on camel prices to ascend Emi Koussi at one place, we moved on to make the ascent from another place at two days' driving distance, ~80km. The camel owners at the destination already knew about this without any means of communication other than walking from one place to another...) The terrain is very difficult to access with vehicles (average speed 20-30kph on 'roads', practically impassable elsewhere), there are minefields everywhere (some marked, some not) so without a knowledgeable local guide attempting to cross the area is like playing Russian roulette, and the Tibus long-standing reputation to being less than friendly to uninvited strangers pretty effectively prevents the 'troubles' elsewhere in the Sahara spilling over to the region. As long as one maintains a good relationship with the locals (and yes, this does come at a price, in fact there is an agreed price-list for maintaining good relations, payable in hard cash in every village to the local chief) the region may be considered reasonably safe for western visitors, provided the current truce between the Tibus in the North and the Government in the South holds.

Hassles / officialdom

Have experienced none. While we had to 'check-in' with military authorities at every larger village we passed, all these stops were quick, good spirited and hassle free. There are no formal check-points anywhere, but I got the impression that if one would 'forget' to check in at the local sous-prefecture, a couple of AK-47s would greet one on waking up the next morning...

The locals were reserved but friendly, like everywhere children were more curious but always in a polite way. Some like being photographed, some don't, so ALWAYS ask before taking photos of people, especially women.

Mines

They are literally EVERYWHERE near terrain passable with vehicles. Contrary to what most sources say, the majority do not date from the Libya - Chad war, but from the much more recent Tibesti rebellion times which only ended 4-5 years ago. There is a considerable marking / clearing operation on the way funded by the EU, currently work is focusing on the Zouar - Bardai track. Known roadside minefields are marked with a perimeter of stones painted white/red (white on the safe side, red on the danger zone side), but there may be mines anywhere off the tracks, as innumerable wrecked vehicles clearly indicate. There is little incentive to clear the mines and mark the known areas outside the currently used tracks, as most are anti-vehicle mines, posing relatively little threat to locals on foot and camels (and they know where they are anyway, as they have planted most of them during the rebellion). In fact locals see the threat of mines (both real and perceived) as a form of protection against infiltration of unwanted outsiders from both Libya and Niger.

One must never let one's guard down. After passing for two days through an area without any known mines, on our very last day in the vicinity of Faya (which was mostly cleared) we by-passed a very nasty stretch of track by climbing the hard sand arc of an encroaching barchan dune. The far slope led down straight into a marked-off area, with the near side covered by the dune and probably already under us as we stopped. We backed up the dune VERY carefully...