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Tag: Lake Chad

  • Italian Govt. pledges 1.5m Euros to support study on Lake Chad Basin

    The Italian Government has pledged 1.5 million Euros to support the feasibility study of water transfer from the Congo River to the Lake Chad basin.

    Mr Stefano Pontesilli, the Italian Ambassador to Nigeria, announced the pledge during the High-Level Session of Presidents of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) meeting of member states on Wednesday in Abuja.

    According to Pontesilli, Italy is concerned about the humanitarian crisis revolving around the Lake Chad shrinkage, and “there is the need for immediate attention’’.

    He said the Lake Chad basin Water transfer was an opportunity to restore its potential.

    He said that Italy was ready to partner with the proposed “Transaqua Project” to see the success of the water transfer.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Lake Chad replenishment project, codenamed ‘Transaqua’ is a proposed major water diversion scheme that would involve damming the Ubangi River at Palumbo in the Central African Republic

    It also involves channelling of some of the water to Lake Chad through a navigable canal.

    The Ambassador recalled that the conduct of the feasibility study was awarded to a Canadian firm, CIMA International, which began work Oct. 13, 2009 for 28 months.

    He expressed hope that the Ubangi-Lake Chad Inter-Basin Water Transfer project would be technically feasible and economically viable with the Trsnsaqua project.

    Earlier, some African leaders pledged to support all programmes and policies to solve the humanitarian needs of the Lake Chad area.

    President of Gabon, Ali Bongo, said restoring the Lake Chad was a dear project that should be vigorously pursued for the betterment of the lives of those in the region.

    He said this commitment was evident in the establishment of a monitoring system for water losses through the help of the Gabonese Space Agency.

    Bongo said his country had developed the adaptation to strengthen climate action to reduce the impact of climate change on the Lake basin region.

    Pontesilli commended the African Development Bank (AfDB) for financial support to the region, calling on other member-states to support the Africa of their dream.

    Dr Muhammad Ibn-Chambers, who represented the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, expressed sadness over the environmental tragedy that has led to violent extremism.

    He said the recent abduction of Dapchi schoolgirls was a matter for regret, saying that in spite of efforts of the multinational joint task force to maintain security, there were still skirmishes of abduction.

    Guterres pledged the commitment of the UN to work with the LCBC, Africa and international partners to change the narratives of the Lake Chad region.

    He called on all African countries to take decisive actions to save the basin and foster regional integration and economic cooperation

    The conference was attended by Presidents Muhammadu Buhari, Mahammadou Issoufu of Niger Republic, Idriss Debby of Chad, Faustin-Archange Touaderae of Central African Republic and Ali Bongo of Gabon.

    NAN recalls that in 1992, a decision was taken to develop a master plan for the Lake Chad basin to include the establishment of an environmentally sound management of the natural resources of the conventional basin.

    The feasibility study for the water transfer from the Congo basin to the Lake Chad was the second priority project selected for implementation by the LCBC.

     

    NAN

  • Nigeria to host conference on restoration of Lake Chad

    President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the hosting by Nigeria of an international conference on saving the Lake Chad, his office said in a statement Tuesday.

    The conference is to revitalize the basin’s ecosystem for sustainable livelihood, security and development.

    This is the first time an international conference on Lake Chad is being organised the six-member countries of the region.

    The three-day conference will consist of two days of technical sessions and one day high level meetings between February 26-28, 2018 and it will take place in Abuja.

    The high level meeting is expected to have in attendance all of the Presidents and Heads of government of the member-states, namely Nigeria,Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Libya.

    The key partners coming together in hosting the conference are Nigeria, the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, the Lake Chad Basin Commission, LCBC and relevant donors including, prospectively, the African Development Bank, AfDB, the World Bank and the governments of Germany, China, Canada and the European Union,EU.

    The main objective of the international conference is to create global awareness on the socio-economic and environmental challenges arising from the shrinkage of the Lake Chad, threat to livelihoods including insecurity with a view to developing a comprehensive program for action to save the lake from extinction.

    Specifically, the conference is expected to discuss and develop consensus on the different options to restore Lake Chad, including the Inter-Basin Water Transfer project from the Ubangi River in Central Africa to the Lake Chad.

    Experts, researchers and resource persons are expected to exchange knowledge and share information on water resources development and management in a crisis environment and to garner political and financial support for the restoration option identified for the restoration of the lake.

    Among the expected outcomes of the conference is a roadmap for the implementation of the recommendations of the conference that should lead to the restoration of the lake; restoration of fishing and irrigated farming as a way of alleviating poverty, strengthening climate resilience in the basin, creating employment,leading to reduction of terrorist activities and increasing the revenue of the population and that of the Lake Chad basin countries.

    The lake Chad Basin, which is shared by Algeria, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Libya, Niger, Nigeria and the Sudan is about eight percent of the size of the African continent, with a population of about 40 million inhabitants.

    Its surface area has shrunk from 25,000 square kilometers to just 2,500 sq.kms, roughly 10 percent of its original size.

    This development has adversely affected the economic, social and cultural environment of the area. As at today, the lake is a source of insecurity, instability, and the loss of livelihoods.

     

  • We’ll resume oil prospecting in Lake Chad soon – NNPC assures

    We’ll resume oil prospecting in Lake Chad soon – NNPC assures

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says it will resume oil prospecting in the Lake Chad Basin of Borno.

    The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru, disclosed this when he visited Governor Kashim Shettima at the Government House in Maiduguri on Monday.

    Baru was represented at the occasion by the NNPC Chief Operations Officer, who is also the Executive Director, Gas and Power, Mr Saidu Mohammed.

    He said that the corporation had concluded arrangement to mobilise heavy and sophisticated equipment to resume oil prospecting in the Lake Chad Basin.

    He said the resumption, which would be done in the next six weeks, was based on the military’s assurance to provide adequate security.

    Baru explained that the move was due to the present relative peace in the state and the degrading of Boko Haram insurgents in the North East region.

    “ We are here in Borno to express our full alignment to the ongoing Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement process by government in all the liberated communities.

    “Therefore, NNPC wants to appeal and seek where it can come in and assist because the rate of devastation is worrisome.

    “We are also in the state to inform you that in the next six weeks, we are going to redeploy our team of experts back to Maiduguri to resume oil exploration with better technology in the Lake Chad Basin.

    “This is necessary with our renewed efforts in harnessing Oil, Gas and Power to increase the economy of the nation in line with the agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari on job creation and economic diversification,” Baru said.

    Responding, Shettima commended the team for the visit and the NNPC’s resolve to resume oil exploration in the region.

    The governor said his administration would partner with NNPC to actualise the mission.

    According to him, the oil and gas, if found, will not only generate revenue but create employment opportunities to the people across the country, particularly the North East region.

    Shettima therefore appealed to NNPC to assist the state government in reconstructing and rebuilding thousands of schools, and other facilities and infrastructure destroyed by insurgents.

    He stressed that the education sector remained the only means of fighting poverty associated with emergence of Boko Haram.

    The team also paid courtesy call on the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Garbai El-Kanemi, in his palace.

    The monarch equally solicited the support of NNPC in the ongoing reconstruction and resettlement of millions of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) back to their liberated communities.

     

     

    NAN

  • Boko Haram: 600 teachers killed, 1,200 schools closed in Lake Chad – UNICEF

    The United Nations Children’s Funds, UNICEF, has said that no fewer than 600 school teachers have lost their lives in the Lake Chad region ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency.

    The UN agency, in a statement made available to newsmen yesterday, revealed that the agency is targeting 158,900 Children to benefit from the training program, which is expected to run until the end of the year.

    The statement said, schools are particularly vulnerable to bombings, attacks, and abductions by the insurgents but many lacked detailed safety plans.

    “Boko Haram, whose name in the Hausa language means ‘Western Education is Forbidden’, has killed more than 600 teachers and forced over 1,200 schools to close during its eight-year insurgency in Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

    “Three years ago, the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls by the jihadist group in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria sparked global outrage.

    “The training program, run in partnership with the European Union, encourages teachers to evaluate the risks facing their schools and helps them develop action plans so that students and teachers know what to do in case of emergency.

    “Ensuring access to education for crisis-affected children is important, however opening schools is not enough,” said Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF’s regional director for West and Central Africa said in the statement.

    “Children and teachers need to be equipped with knowledge and skills, to be prepared and able to mitigate the effects of something dangerous happening around the school premises,” she added.

    UNICEF spokesman, Patrick Rose said, “Some of the plans include appointing student leaders, designating assembly points and practicing emergency evacuation techniques. Some 1,600 teachers have been trained so far.

    “The training also includes techniques for providing traumatized children with psychological support and making schools feel like a safe place in the midst of the chaos.

    “Teachers learn games that can have a healing effect, and how to incorporate lessons about looking after each other into the children’s activities.”

     

  • Suffering in Lake Chad as children starve, mothers sell sex to survive – Red Cross

    The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday said women in the Lake Chad basin had been forced to prostitute to survive.

    ICRC attributed it to an insurgency by Boko Haram fighters that had driven millions from their homes and left children to starve.

    The violence has displaced over 2.4 million people across the swamp lands of Lake Chad, where the borders of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria meet, and disrupted the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of others,’’ ICRC said.

    According to the United Nations, up to a million people have been cut off from humanitarian aid by Boko Haram in spite of a regional military offensive against the Islamist militants.

    “It’s extraordinary to see a woman and her family and they have nothing other than what they have been given.

    “The children are clearly malnourished and it’s just hopeless,’’ Simon Brooks, head of ICRC’s delegation in Cameroon, said.

    According to Brooks, as the head of their households, some mothers have been forced to prostitute so they could feed their family since many no longer have husbands because of the conflict.

    “When you don’t have the means to survive, you’ll go begging for it.

    “It’s a loss of dignity when you’re having to resort to something like that just to keep your children alive – fraternizing with people who have money,’’ he said.

    The unfolding catastrophe in the Lake Chad basin was named the most neglected crisis of 2016 in a poll of aid agencies by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

    “Overshadowed by the wars in Syria and Iraq and the global refugee and migrant crisis, Lake Chad has barely made the headlines,’’ Brooks said during an interview in London.

    Report says over 7 million people lack food but insecurity makes it hard for aid agencies to reach the most vulnerable.

    “Half a million children are severely acutely malnourished and on the brink of death if they are not treated.

    “This area has suffered from decades of chronic neglect … if it continues to be under-funded and under-reported, then millions of people will continue to suffer,’’ Brooks said.