June 3, 2019
At its 14th tri-annual conference in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, over the weekend, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) issued its support for the Transaqua project for the restoration of Lake Chad. In a speech at the summit, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari commended the decision.
The OIC is the second-largest intergovernmental institution in the world, just after the UN, with 57 member states from four continents, representing 1.5 billion Muslims around the world. As a result, it has a much higher percentage of “developing” nations of the world than the UN, and is more attuned to their perspective. Buhari, as President of one of the four states bordering Lake Chad (along with Niger, Chad, and Cameroon), has seen the lake disappear, and the growing devastation and radicalization which resulted, as have the six members states of
the Lake Chad Basin Commission (along with Libya and Central African Republic).
In 2018, the OIC approved $9 billion for development in the region, specifically identifying Boko Haram, saying in their statement, that the security, stability, and development of the Lake Chad region remain priorities for the OIC. At the same conference, they signed an MOU with the Lake Chad Basin Commission to save the lake.
“The president, who gave the commendation at the opening of the 14th Summit of the OIC hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, noted that the shrinking of Lake Chad to about 10 per cent of its original size had adversely affected over 30 million livelihoods in the sub-region.
“He maintained that the shrinking had cause severe economic deprivation, fueled illegal migration to Europe, the displacement of communities and radicalization of youth, forcing them to join the Boko Haram terrorist group. “In this connection, we welcome the various interventions under the Special Programme for the Development of Africa, the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development and the recent approved Science and Technology Fund, among others. “We urge them to do more as their contributions towards poverty alleviation and peace building,’’ he added. President Buhari also lauded the OIC for its engagement of the Islamic Development Bank Group in the implementation of national development projects in Africa…”
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