The Lake Chad Basin is facing a complex and escalating crisis driven by a combination of factors. These include conflict with non-state armed groups, extreme poverty, underdevelopment, and a changing climate, all of which have triggered significant displacement of populations.
The violent conflict, originating in Nigeria, has intensified and spread across borders into Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, causing a growing humanitarian crisis. This is taking place in one of the poorest and most fragile parts of the world.
Map of the Lake Chad Basin
Humanitarian Impact
9.2 million people are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, and over 2.6 million people have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety and protection. Many affected people are living in desperate conditions without access to food or clean water. Malnutrition rates are alarmingly high.
Conflict-related protection issues are of grave concern. In Nigeria alone, 601 incidents of sexual violence were recorded in 2021 according to the UN. In 2022, 862 grave violations against children, including recruitment into armed groups, abduction, killing and maiming, were verified in the Lake Chad Basin, according to a report of the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.
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As of July 2023, 3,831,877 individuals were affected, including 485,825 internally displaced persons (IDPs), 2,063,885 returnees former IDPs, 503,019 returnees from abroad and 779,148 refugees.
The crisis is characterized by power struggles amongst elites, the absence of state institutions and public investment, religious and ethnic tensions and disputes for the control of key resources.
Regional Displacement
The Lake Chad Basin crisis has led to significant displacement across borders. Refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) are primarily hosted by Cameroon (45% of the refugees), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (27% of the refugees) and Chad (16% of the refugees). Nonetheless, 24,370 refugees from the Central African Republic are still living in Sudan (3% of the refugees).
As of October 26, 2022, Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger hosted 5,876,611 individuals affected by the crisis, including internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees and returnees. 74 per cent of the affected population were located in Nigeria, while 11 per cent resided in Cameroon, 9 per cent in Chad and 6 per cent in Niger.
IDPs, Refugees and Returnees in the Lake Chad Basin
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The Role of Boko Haram
Since 2015, attacks in Chad by the jihadist group Boko Haram, have led to the deaths of hundreds, displaced nearly 200,000 people and damaged the regional economy of the Lake Chad Basin (LCB). As of May 2019 more than 179,000 people have fled their villages out of fear and have settled in other areas of Chad, leaving behind their sources of livelihood.
Boko Haram is an insurgent network that began in north-east Nigeria in 2002 and later fractured into two main factions: JAS (Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, the original Boko Haram faction) and ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province, the Islamic State affiliate in the region). Both operate across Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
Regional Stabilization Facility of the Lake Chad Basin: RETURN TO NORMALCY IN AMCHIDE
Across the shared basin, Boko Haram has built a brutal, extractive shadow economy. The paper sets out how Boko Haram has come to operate like a parallel government, imposing taxes on trade, farming and fishing.
The UN reports that kidnapping for ransom remains a key revenue source for Boko Haram/ISWAP, and that a “large ransom” was paid in the 2018 Dapchi schoolgirls case. Ransoms pay for weapons, logistics and recruitment.
Climate Change and Environmental Factors
The crisis currently affecting the Lake Chad Basin states results from a complex combination of factors, including conflict with Non-State Armed Groups, extreme poverty, underdevelopment and a changing climate, which together have triggered significant displacement of populations.
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Lake Chad’s open-water area fell from about 25,000 km² in the early 1960s to lows of a few hundred km² in the 1980s, and has generally remained under one-tenth of its 1960s extent with strong variability. As water recedes and fertile land disappears, fishing, farming and herding collapse.
The basin’s ecological collapse has turned Lake Chad into a recruitment ground. The World Food Programme shows how droughts and erratic rainfall have crushed agricultural yields. This isn’t just an ecological crisis.
The dangerous link between climate change and conflict is clear in countries across the Lake Chad Basin, including Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. Climate change and conflict have destroyed fishing and farming livelihoods communities long depended on, and displaced millions.
Shrinkage of Lake Chad
Lake Chad has lost 90 percent of its surface area between 1963 and 1990. This shrinkage occurs against a backdrop of escalating water demand, increasing scarcity, growing uncertainty, and greater weather extremes. Both climate change and global population growth are adding to strains on water use and water supply.
The paper finds that the negative population impacts were stronger for rural residents, indicating that the population decrease was largely driven by decreases in this group. Overall, shrinkage of Lake Chad has led to a significant negative impact on the economy, with far-reaching implications for the regions bordering the lake. While the losses are estimated to be 6 percent for the region, it is as high as 9 percent in Chad - the most negatively impacted country.
Challenges and Recommendations
Despite the scale of the crisis, it receives very little attention; knowledge of it is not widespread and only 25 percent of the $562m requested for the Lake Chad Basin humanitarian response has been received as of August 15, 2016. Millions of people remain unassisted.
Based on research findings, five interventions are recommended:
- Investment in the ecological recovery of the region.
- Strengthening of cross-border intelligence to choke the illicit trade in fish, cattle, arms and people.
- Transparency from foreign players about their motives.
- Rebuilding of local economies and support for displaced communities.
- Rebuilding of trust with local communities.
Plan International and partners are calling on donors, governments, the UN, and other humanitarian agencies to scale up their response to the conflict.
A displaced woman receives WFP food assistance in Chad.
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