Lake Chad: The Humanitarian Crisis
Last week’s article introduced the people of Lake Chad — a diverse confluence of ethnicities, nationalities and livelihoods. The following article will expand on the human aspect of Lake Chad and emphasize the current humanitarian and displacement crisis.
Climate change trends such as desertification, the shrinking of the lake, increasing food and water insecurity, ineffective governance, a growing population, widespread poverty and lack of education, compounded with violent extremism, corruption and transnational criminal organizations has led to a crisis that affects millions of people. Speakers at the United Nations Security Council meeting of March 2018 stated that the Lake Chad Basin is in dire straits as the lake provides livelihoods for 45 million people. 10.7 million people need life saving assistance and 4.5 million people are severely food insecure (this figure was expected to rise to 5.8 million by June 2018).
The extreme change in climate has disrupted the livelihood practices that have sustained people for generations. Malnutrition and disease, combined with increased competition for scarce resource, has placed extreme stress on the already volatile region, exacerbating existing conflicts between pastoral and agricultural populations. The fight for survival is a critical driver of instability in the area.
Cross border trade is essential to the people of Lake Chad, as their entire economy relies on the natural resources of the lake. As discussed last week, regional trade systems that flow between communities in Lake Chad are run by the local populations whose tribal and familiar affiliations often stretch across national boundaries. Border closures due to conflict cut off sellers from major markets in different countries. This also makes the local populations vulnerable to violent groups who can take advantage of these trade routes to transport their illicit goods. And closed borders only makes the black market more profitable.
The rise of violent extremism in northeast Nigeria has worsened many of these problems as its effects spill over into Lake Chad and the countries surrounding it. People fleeing conflict and people searching for new livelihood opportunities are the main reasons for displacement around Lake Chad. However, much of the influx of refugees and IDPs (internally displaced persons) have been received by communities near Lake Chad who are already incredibly food insecure and vulnerable themselves. Refugees, on top of the local populations, continue to strain the lake of its resources. As the humanitarian crisis continues, extra pressure is put on limited resources creating a cycle of continuous environmental degradation and resource scarcity. Furthermore, similar to the ISIS business model in the Syria crisis, Boko Haram and criminal organizations profit off of the same displacement they created. Human trafficking and migrant transport is a highly lucrative trade.
Ineffective governance has laid the foundation for many of the problems Lake Chad sees today. Unregulated use of natural resources, the region’s large ungoverned spaces, and an inability to provide basic services especially to rural communities, has left much of the region poor, uneducated, undeveloped, and susceptible to insecurity. In general, the countries of the Lake Chad basin, particularly Chad and Cameroon, have used otherwise allocated funds to combat political opposition in their countries rather than investing in infrastructure and social services (World Food Programme). The region surrounding Lake Chad continues to be among the poorest areas of these countries; neglected due to corruption and political instability resulting in an increasingly disaffected population. As the growing populations of Lake Chad continue to lack adequate protection and benefits from their governments, they become more susceptible to those who offer promises of education, money and access to basic services. Humanitarian efforts helped narrowly avoid famine in the region in 2017, but have not come close to sustainably resolving the health and food crises that continues to plague the region.
As Ben Taub puts in in his article Lake Chad: The World’s Most Complex Humanitarian Disaster, “….Lake Chad — in a neglected patch of territory, the international community ends up fulfilling the unwanted obligations of statehood. The regime reaps the benefit, and the threats that arise from its failure to govern are mitigated, and its leader is left to focus on the task of strengthening the security apparatus that keeps him in power.” Unfortunately, Taub explains that the major donor countries for humanitarian aid are attracted to areas susceptible to recruitment by violent extremist groups. If Boko Haram was to go away, emergency humanitarian funds would be diverted to other urgent crises, leaving the people Lake Chad in the same situation they were before — struggling to provide for themselves in an environmental crisis.
Factors that enable violent groups and organizations to take hold and perpetuate the humanitarian crisis at Lake Chad appear to parallel those that created the crisis pre-conflict — inadequate government support, resource insecurity, lack of access to basic services, etc. In a competion to govern the ungoverned and provide these communities a measure of essential services and rule of law, violent extremist groups and transational criminal organizations are better funded, resourced, armed, and effective in recruiting local support than the international aid organizations. The people of Lake Chad yearn for predictability and stability. Any organization that offers this will have their ears, and potentially, their hearts.
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In an effort to better understand the current dynamics of Lake Chad, next week’s article will discuss these violent extremist groups and criminal organizations and look at what the surrounding countries are doing and have done to combat them.
