FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Nigerian President Urges International Support for Restoring Lake Chad Basin, in UNGA Address
Oct. 2, 2018 (EIRNS)—In discussing the factors driving terrorism and migration in Africa during his Sept. 25 address to the UN General Assembly, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari singled out the “consequences of a drastically shrunk Lake Chad and the parching up of otherwise fertile arable lands” as a major factor, as he called for “a rededicated international engagement to accelerate the recovery efforts in the Lake Chad Basin to address the root causes of the conflicts in the region.”
“The Lake was a major source of livelihood to more than 45 million inhabitants of the region,” he said.
“Its shrinking meant loss of livelihoods and they are now rendered poor and vulnerable to the activities of extremists and terrorist groups. The instability thus caused in the sub-region intensified internal displacements leading, among other consequences, to intense economic competition especially between farmers and herdsmen.”
To eliminate that threat,
“what is required is continuous and robust UN cooperation with national governments and sub-regional and regional organizations such as the Lake Chad Basin Commission, the Economic Community of West African States and the African Union, to enhance capacity in conflict prevention, conflict management and peace building,”
he urged.
President Buhari did not name the great Transaqua project to replenish Lake Chad by transferring water from the Congo River Basin, by a means that creates navigable canals and hydropower, transforming the entire region in the process, but that Transaqua project was adopted unequivocally as the needed solution at the Feb. 26-28, 2018 International Conference on Lake Chad in Abuja, Nigeria, which was opened by President Buhari. Italy and China have been commissioned to prepare a study on the feasibility of that project, for which they are providing funding.
