As the crisis in the Sahel region and Lake Chad Basin escalates like wildfire, Nigeria needs to prioritise deeper regional security cooperation within the Sahel region if it hopes to effectively tackle insurgency, banditry, and cross-border trade, and recharge the Basin.
This was part of discussions by ambassadors and diplomats from the Sahel and Lake Chad countries who converged on Borno State to chart security and trade cooperation in the region.
Sola Enikanolaiye, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said the two-day high-level retreat of Nigerian ambassadors and diplomats from the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin countries was organised to develop practical solutions to the region’s critical challenges.
He said the Sahel and Lake Chad regions were plagued by terrorism and violent extremism, transnational organised crime, irregular migration, climate change, environmental degradation, humanitarian crises and geopolitical competition.
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