Insecurity, Climate Change… : Lake Chad Basin Revises Combat Strategies

The six member countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Libya, Niger and Nigeria) have agreed to redouble their efforts in pulling resources together so as to give the region much-needed socio-economic development irrespective of mounting challenges caused by insecurity and climate change. Meeting in Abuja yesterday November 29, 2022 within the framework of the 16th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, the leaders agreed that military solutions alone cannot level the mountain of challenges the region has been facing.
They came to a consensus that once people are hungry and sometimes pushed to the wall by underdevelopment and illiteracy, they may be tempted to accept just anything even from sellers of illusion. The case of Boko Haram and the people they pulled into their brutish ranks, the regional leaders agreed, lends credence to what a hungry man can do or become. 
Little wonder one of the outcomes of the Abuja Summit was the adoption of the 2023 Action Plan of the Lake Chad Basin Commission with a budget of close to FCFA 16 billion. Top on the priority for next year’s roadmap will be the development of socio-economic infrastructure and income-generating activities. This is on the basis that the multifaceted problems relating to the development of the Lake Chad Basin have highlighted several livelihood challenges for its population. These include insufficient nature of basic social infrastructure which they said exposes the population to all sorts of threats, poor management of natural resources, hence conflicts and an environmental disaster that requires special attention and significant resources to mitigate the impact on the population and develop their adaptive capacities. It is also expected that 2023 will as well witness a sustainable management of natural resources through the conservation and rehabilitation of ecosystems, the development and implementation of wetlands management plans and sectoral master plans for the management of natural resources in the areas of high human and animal density. 
As the new Chairperson of Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, Chad’s Transitional Head of State continuous from where the Nigerian leader ended, he would need to bear in mind the aspirations of his peers expressed at Tuesday’s conclave. Insecurity characterized by banditry, cattle theft as well as the disastrous consequences of climate change remain surmountable challenges for the region....