Security will dominate key sessions at the forthcoming fifth Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum to be hosted by Yobe State.
Mr Hyacinth Banseka, the Technical Director of the Lake Chad Basin Commission in N’Djamena, Chad said at the opening of the state Local Organising Committee meeting with officials of the commission in Damaturu, that the meeting would be held between Oct. 16 and Oct. 18 in Maiduguri as agreed by both Yobe and the commission.
Banseka said representatives of member countries of Nigeria, Chad, and Cameron were expected to provide inputs on how to tackle insurgency in the region during the meeting.
The technical director said the forum was established in 2016 for cooperation, stabilization, peace building and sustainable development in the countries affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.
“The forum is one of the coordination and cooperation platforms set up when member states established a document called regional strategy for stabilization, recovery and resilience,” he said.
Banseka said other critical stakeholders such as the UNDP and Multi-Sectoral Crises Recovery Project (MCRP), among others, would be in attendance.
In his remarks, Alhaji Baba Wali, the Secretary to the Yobe State Government (SSG), said that the forum is quite critical to counter-insurgency efforts in the region, assuring that Yobe is committed to ensuring hitch-free deliberations at the all-important meeting.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the fourth session held in N’Djamena on July 8, last year.
Over the past two decades, the four countries that share Lake Chad (Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria, and Chad) have faced multiple challenges and issues resulting from a combination of complex multidimensional factors, including crises and conflicts involving non-state armed groups, extreme levels of poverty, climatic upheaval and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to data from the UN, these interconnected factors led to one of the most serious humanitarian crises in recent years, with almost three million people displaced, more than 11 million people in need of emergency humanitarian aid, more than half of whom are facing food insecurity, and more than 500,000 children suffering from severe malnutrition.
The security situation is gradually stabilising, due to the combined efforts of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) of LCBC Member States and the various national armies, nevertheless, economically, and socially, everything remains to be built or rebuilt.
The UN says 13 years of conflict and violence have resulted in the loss of human lives, massive internal and cross-border displacement of populations, destruction of the social fabric and property, violation of human rights, disruption of public services and weakening of public authorities.
As an essential component of the Regional Strategy for the Stabilisation, Recovery and Resilience of the Areas Affected by the Boko Haram Crisis, the governors’ forum provides a unique and privileged framework for dialogue and exchange between various stakeholders,
These stakeholders are regional governors, the United Nations system, multilateral agencies, civil society, etc.
