Security will dominate key sessions at the forthcoming fifth Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum hosted by Yobe.

Hyacinth Banseka, the Technical Director of the Lake Chad Basin Commission in N’Djamena, Chad, said this at the opening of the state local organising committee meeting with officials in Damaturu.

He said the meeting would be held between October 16 and 18 in Maiduguri as both Yobe and the commission agreed.

Mr Banseka said representatives of member countries of Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon were expected to provide inputs on tackling insurgency in the region during the meeting.

The technical director said the forum was established in 2016 to promote cooperation, stabilisation, 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.

Mr Banseka said other critical stakeholders, such as the UNDP and Multi-Sectoral Crises Recovery Project (MCRP), would be in attendance.

Baba Wali, the secretary to the state government, noted that the forum was critical to counter-insurgency efforts in the region. He said Yobe was committed to ensuring hitch-free deliberations at the all-important meeting.

The fourth session was held in N’Djamena on July 8, 2023.

Over the past two decades, the four countries that share Lake Chad (Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria, and Chad) 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 and 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.

(NAN)