Introduction

Lake Chad is a common heritage of the states of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. These four countries founded the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC); the accession of the Central African Republic (CAR) in 1994 and Sudan in 2000 allowed the surface area of the Lake Chad Basin to grow to 966,955 km2.

Cohabiting communities in this basin include populations of riparian countries, stateless populations and nationals of other African States, such as Guineans, Senegalese, Malians, Ghanaians, etc.

The predominant communities in the Lake Chad region are the Hausa, Foulbé, Boudouma, Kanouri Arab and Kotoko. All these populations live together in a diversity of customs and practices.

Economic activities in the Lake Chad basin

The economic activities of the populations of the Lake Chad Basin are mainly agriculture, livestock, fishing and related artisanal processing activities.

Thus, in this region, there are three types of agriculture: rain-fed agriculture, flood-fed agriculture and irrigation agriculture, which is currently in the minority.

Agriculture in the Lake Chad Basin is essentially concerned with food production for the local populations. Crops include maize, wheat, millet, rice, potatoes, melons, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, onions, etc.

Fishing, which used to be the most attractive activity, is now facing enormous difficulties, including the continuous drying-up of the waters of Lake Chad, which has considerably reduced fish-farming activities and led fishers to change to agricultural or pastoral activities. In addition to natural constraints such as climate change, the scarcity of rainfall and the increase in population are further accentuating these difficulties.

It should be noted that inter-village commercial activities are also significant in this region.

Examples of regional projects managed by the Lake Chad Basin Commission

The LCBC is implementing several projects in the Lake Chad Basin, which aim to optimize and better manage the heritages of the Lake Chad Basin. These include:

  • a project for the safeguarding of the Kouri cattle breed, which is a species that lives only in this area; and

  • the Lake Chad Basin Water Resources Planning and Management Project.

The influence of the Boko Haram jihadist group in the Lake Chad Basin

The Lake Chad region, which is known as an agricultural, fishing and livestock production area, has been seriously challenged by insecurity in recent years. According to Buchanan-Clarke and Lekalake (2016): ‘The region seems to reflect an image of ungoverned spaces, porous borders, poor security organs, human rights violations, and high youth unemployment. A set of conditions that allow violent extremist groups to thrive’.Footnote 1

This paper gives an overview of the current situation of the lake, which persists in spite of the efforts made by the States and their various technical and financial partners. A simple but illustrative fact emerges from our investigation, which shows the weakness of State control in the Lake Chad Basin area.

The people of the Lake Chad Basin do not have the same perception of Boko Haram as the authorities in their countries. While many are coerced by Boko Haram, it is important to recognize that some are not brought in by force and have left voluntarily. This is a problem that policy either ignores or does not really try to identify.

The Boko Haram group has thus found a favourable environment for development.

Advocacy and education of the transnational village populations of the Lake Chad Basin

A large proportion of the population (18%)Footnote 2 living in the border villages of the Lake Chad Basin are stateless, in the sense that they do not have a nationality of one of the basin States and are therefore excluded from the traditional education systems. According to our 2017 survey, more than 30% of the youth in the region do not attend school. These youths are mostly engaged in banditry activities and are highly vulnerable to enrolment by the Boko Haram sect.

To address this situation, the Youth Organization for Peace and Development (YOPD) focuses on two instruments:

  • Advocacy with governments and international NGOs

  • Literacy and vocational training.

Advocacy with governments and NGOs

The YOPD advocates with the governments of the Lake Chad Basin States, the LCBC, donors and humanitarian NGOs such as Action Against Hunger, UNDP, UNFPA, etc.

In general, the YOPD sends the partners study reports and recommendations, and organizes conferences to raise awareness on the issue of statelessness, the schooling of young people and the problem of employment in the basin.

Literacy and vocational training

The YOPD provided three programmes of literacy classes for stateless and non-status populations in 2018. Each programme lasted three months and involved three villages. This enabled a total of 200 youths to learn to read and write.

Figure 1 gives a breakdown of the number of learners by village.

Figure 1.
figure 1

Breakdown of literacy learners by village. Source: YOPD, 2017.

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Vocational training took place in Koulfoua (Chad) and Fotokol (Cameroon) in subjects such as mechanics, tailoring and carpentry. In 2018, this training provided 160 underprivileged youths with life skills to empower themselves and not succumb to the temptation of joining the Boko Haram group.

For the village of Koulfoua, the breakdown of training beneficiaries by trade is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2.
figure 2

Distribution of training recipients by occupation in Koulfoua. Source: YOPD, 2017.

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For the village of Fotokol, the breakdown of training beneficiaries by trade is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3.
figure 3

Distribution of training recipients by occupation in Fotokol. Source: YOPD, 2017.

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Promotion of peaceful cohabitation in cross-border villages

The YOPD has organized awareness campaigns on peaceful cohabitation between young Chadians, Cameroonians and Nigerians of different religious denominations living in cross-border villages in the Lake Chad Basin. The YOPD carries out activities to encourage young people to mix and discover each other’s culture (e.g. through dance concerts, wrestling tournaments, etc.). These activities took place in Diffa and Nguigmi (Niger), Bagassola (Chad) and Darak (Cameroon), thanks to the collaboration of some local associations in these border villages.

The YOPD also provides support to imams, Koranic schoolteachers and community leaders in cross-border villages and involves them in raising awareness of peaceful cohabitation and peace between the various populations living along the shores of Lake Chad. These leaders are very influential in their communities and contribute greatly to the fight against violent extremism, particularly by explaining to the population the distinction between Islam and Islamism and by deconstructing the discourse of the Boko Haram group.