FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Nigeria under Attack, Including Sabotage Effort against Lake Chad Conference, Transaqua
Feb. 22, 2018 (EIRNS)—The country of Nigeria, which under President Muhammadu Buhari has taken a leadership role in bringing the Belt and Road paradigm to Africa, is under attack on several fronts. On Monday evening, Feb. 19, Boko Haram militias stormed the Government Girls Science Secondary School in the village of Dapchi, in the northeastern state of Yobe, and abducted 111 girls; up to 76 of them have been rescued by the Nigerian military.
The attack surprised many, as it was believed that Boko Haram capabilities had been severely impaired by the Multinational Force.
At the political level, the Nigerian House of Representatives raised charges of corruption and misappropriation of funds against the executive secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) Sanusi Abdullahi, and asked the government to suspend funds to the LCBC on Feb. 16. Although the allegation is old, and legally the LCBC is a multinational body which is not accountable to the national Parliament of Nigeria, the renewed attack comes on the eve of a major international conference organized by the LCBC together with the Nigerian government and UNESCO, to build support for a water-transfer infrastructure to refill Lake Chad.
The event is going to take place on Feb. 26-28 in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. A highlight of the conference will be the presentations by the Italian firm Bonifica and the Chinese firm PowerChina, on their strategic alliance to carry out a feasibility study for such a water-transfer infrastructure project, known as Transaqua. (EIR gave in-depth coverage to the project in its Sept. 9, 2017 issue, “Africa: Transaqua Project Gains Momentum.”)
According to intelligence available to EIR, a four-party agreement might be signed on the sidelines of the conference among the LCBC, Bonifica, PowerChina and the Italian government for co-financing the study.
