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Tag: Chad

  • Chad is good for investment, says UBA

    Chad is good for investment, says UBA

    The United Bank for Africa (UBA) has declared Chad as a good investment destination.

    Chairman of UBA Group Tony Elumelu said this during a forum organised by the Chadian government on the financing of its National Development Plan 2017- 2021 last week in Paris.

    Elumelu, who was represented by the CEO, UBA Francophone Africa, Emeke E. Iweriebor, said UBA’s decision to invest in Chad a decade ago turned out to be a sound investment decision.

    “UBA Chad has contributed to the growth of the Chadian economy through financing infrastructure, a critical lever in sustainable development,” he said.

    He added that UBA Chad is one of the Pan-African bank’s high performing subsidiaries in Africa and encouraged potential investors to look into Chad as an investment destination.

    The forum was opened and closed by Chadian President Idris Deby.

    In attendance were President of Mauritania Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Chadian cabinet ministers, representatives from various governments, including the governments of Japan, Canada, the U.S.A, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and from the African Union, AfDB, European Union (EU), International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and many others.

    Iweriebor said at a session during the forum that with the presence in 19 African countries as well as in London, Paris and New York, UBA has supported several projects in Chad, including a 60 Mega Watt Central Electricity power plant in Farcha.

    UBA contributed $18.5million and led the syndication that raised $80 million for the project resulting in an improvement in the access to electricity in Chad by 3.9 per cent.

    The bank continues to support the government of Chad in its development initiatives in the areas of infrastructure, oil and gas and other key sectors of the economy.

    The forum on the national development plan saw many organisations and countries pledging support to Chad with about $20 billion raised.

    Derby thanked the people and organisations present for coming to support Chad.

    He promised that the administration was going to put in maximum effort to ensure that the development plan was successful.

  • NAF: African Partnership Flight opens in Lagos

    NAF: African Partnership Flight opens in Lagos

    The Nigeria Air Force (NAF) on Monday hosted three African countries for the African Partnership Flight (APF) in Lagos to further enhance regional cooperation, increase interoperability and build capacity.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Chad, Niger and Benin Republic participated in the US-backed APF – a multi-lateral military-to-military engagement designed to boost African cooperation in aviation.

    Speaking at the opening, Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, said it was important for contiguous nations to pull their resources together to ensure a synergy in their operations.

    “Globally, the concept of regional forces has gained recognition as the best approach towards solving common security issues.

    “This is because the most prevalent form of warfare in contemporary times is asymmetric in nature and often transcends international borders,’’ he said.

    Abubakar said that the regional synergy was for the common goal of stamping out the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East of Nigeria.

    “The NAF, which is one of the instruments of national power, is not unmindful of the occasional need for services to participating in both joint and combined operations.

    “The service is also mindful of the effect and aftermath of insurgency with particular reference to the plight of innocent civilians including women and children, who often are the unintended victims.

    “We are all aware of the current Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria which has resulted in over two million Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) who are in dire need of one basic need or the other,’’ he said.

    Abubakar said it was for this reason that NAF embarked on several humanitarian programmes aimed at alleviating the plight of the IDPs.

    He commended the U.S. Air Force Command in Europe for bringing together countries of the region to stimulate a combined security and humanitarian environment.

    The Lagos State Gov., Akinwunmi Ambode, in his keynote address, said armed forces all over the world have the traditional role to defending their nations from external aggression and maintaining territorial integrity.

    Represented by the Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations, Mr Oluseye Oladejo, Ambode said the armed forces had been busy doing a good job of confronting our nation’s multifaceted internal security challenges.

    “With the changing trends in modern warfare, armed forces have been further saddled with the tremendous responsibility of providing regional security through multinational joint forces.

    “However, the major problems confronting such multinational forces are usually differences in doctrines, training, weapon, language and cultures, thus, underscoring the need for constant joint training to enhance interoperability.

    “You will all recall that in a bid to re-position the armed forces to better cope with those challenges, the present administration under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari has made modernisation, re-equipping and continuous training a top priority,’’ he said.

    He said it was particularly noteworthy that the U.S. had been supportive in the efforts at building the capacity of NAF personnel.

    “On the choice of theme, I expect that this event would contribute to further building the capacity of the NAF personnel in their untiring efforts at reaching IDPs and other non-combatants,’’ he said.

    Highlights of the 2017 APF, themed – Aero medical Evacuation and Medical Deployment – included training of officials from participating countries and static display showcasing the arrangement of stretchers in the NAF C-130H aircraft.

    Present at the exercise were senior military officers and their counterparts from the U.S and other African countries.

  • UN Security Council urges support for Joint Task Force

    UN Security Council urges support for Joint Task Force

    The UN Security Council has welcomed recent efforts by the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to combat Boko Haram and called for support by UN member states for the team.

    The Security Council President for the month of July, Liu Jieyi, in a  statement, expressed the body’s concern over the threat of terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin.

    Liu  condemned all terrorist attacks in the West African sub-region, especially in Northern and Central Mali and the Lake Chad Basin by Islamic State in Iraq and Boko Haram respectively.

    He expressed concern over attacks on civilians, the primary victims of terrorist violence and urged a holistic approach to degrade and defeat the terrorists in compliance with international law.

    “The Security Council encourages member states and multilateral partners to lend their support to the MNJTF to ensure its full operationalisation.

    “This includes the provision of modalities to increase the timely and effective exchange of intelligence to further the region’s collective efforts to combat Boko Haram, whenever possible and appropriate,” Liu said.

    He expressed the commitment of the Council to work through the UN Office in West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) to strengthen cooperation in addressing cross-border security threats and curbing the spread of terrorism.

    “The Security Council notes the collaboration undertaken between UNOWAS and the Peace-building Commission and encourages continued close and effective cooperation in support of sustainable peace in the region,” Liu said.

    He said the Council noted the dire humanitarian situation caused by the terrorists’ activities in the Lake Chad Basin.

    He called on the international community to “immediately support the provision of urgent humanitarian assistance for the people most affected by the crisis in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria”.

    Liu said support to provide urgent humanitarian assistance for Boko Haram victims included honouring the UN appeal for the Lake Chad Basin region.

    He urged regional governments to facilitate humanitarian access and to work with the UN in developing aid delivery options.

  • Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon adopt plan to eradicate Boko Haram

    Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon adopt plan to eradicate Boko Haram

    The Council of Ministers of Defence of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) and the Republic of Benin have adopted a new plan “to completely eradicate” the terror sect, Boko Haram, in the region.

    The draft document prepared by military experts, chiefs of defence staff and heads of intelligence and security services of the LCBC was validated in Yaounde on Thursday, though the content was not made public.

    However, Cameroon Defence Minister, Joseph Beti Assomo said the meeting brought them closer to their “common strategic objective; the complete eradication of Boko Haram.”

    The Yaounde meeting also focused on assessing the security and humanitarian situation of the region and preparing for post-conflict stabilisation and rehabilitation of the areas affected by the Boko Haram militants.

    Boko Haram launched its insurgency in 2009 aiming to create an Islamic state in north eastern Nigeria, but has spread its terror to countries of the Lake Chad Basin – Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria.

    An 8,700-man regional Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) comprising troops from the four countries has been fighting to bring the sect to its knees since 2015.

    The executive secretary of the LCBC, Sanusi Imran Abdullahi said thanks to the efforts of the force, Boko Haram has been weakened.

    He announced that a new commander has been appointed to head the force.

     

  • Boko Haram militants kill nine in Niger village

    Boko Haram militants kill nine in Niger village

    Suspected Boko Haram militants have killed nine people in south-east Niger, an official said on Monday.

    The militants arrived on foot in Nglewa village in Kablewa rural municipality some 100 kilometres north of Diffa on Sunday.

    Kablewa Mayor Abari Elh Daouda said that they killed eight young people and an elderly man.

    About 30 people, including women and young men, were abducted.

    Report says the radical Islamist group kidnaps women to use as servants and sex slaves, while they use men as fighters.

    The Nigeria-based group has killed no fewer than 20,000 people since 2009 in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

  • 5m children susceptible to water-borne diseases in Lake Chad – UNICEF

    5m children susceptible to water-borne diseases in Lake Chad – UNICEF

    The UN warned on Friday that no fewer than 5.6 million children across the Lake Chad basin are susceptible to deadly water-borne diseases such as cholera and hepatitis E as the rainy season hits a region already reeling from Boko Haram’s insurgency.

    UNICEF in a statement, said the 5.6 million children in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, many of whom have been uprooted by violence and live in host communities or refugee camps, are facing the disease threat as the rains arrive.

    The aid agency said flooding and muddy roads are expected to limit aid access to remote areas, where hunger is growing and the food is lacking, while the insecurity has made it hard to deliver supplies and ensure clean water is available ahead of the rains.

    “The rains will further complicate what is already a dire humanitarian situation, as millions of children made vulnerable by conflict are now facing the potential spread of opportunistic diseases,” Marie Poirier of UNICEF said in a statement.

    “Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene conditions can lead to cholera and hepatitis E.

    “Staving off disease is our top priority.”

    Cholera, which spreads through contaminated food and water, causes diarrhoea and vomiting, leaving small children especially vulnerable to death from dehydration, whereas liver disease Hepatitis E is particularly deadly for pregnant women.

    Also, the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said in Niger’s Diffa region, which has been hit by the conflict and hosts about 250,000 uprooted Nigeriens and Nigerian refugees, an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed at least 33 pregnant women so far this year.

    “To curb this type of outbreak, we know that our best asset at the moment is … water and sanitation activities ” said Víctor Illanes of the MSF.

    “When the deficiencies are so high and the space to be covered is as large as Diffa, it is difficult for these activities to have an impact in the short term,” he added.

    Boko Haram’s campaign to create an Islamic state is in its eighth year with little sign of ending.

    It has claimed more than 20,000 lives and uprooted 2.7 million people across Lake Chad.

    No fewer than five million people in northeast Nigeria need food aid, and about 1.5 million are believed to be on the brink of famine, yet the UN in this June, had to cut emergency food supplies for 400,000 people due to a lack of funding.

  • ECOWAS to set up solidarity fund to rebuild North East

    ECOWAS to set up solidarity fund to rebuild North East

     

    Mr. Edward Singhatey, the Vice President, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission says that plans are on-going to establish a solidarity Fund for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the North-East.

    Singhatey made this known on Tuesday in Abuja during the celebration of the 2017 World Refugee Day with the theme “We stand together with refugees and IDPs”.

    He said the Solidarity Fund was in compliance with the decision of the Mediation and Security Council to support the Federal Government’s Plan for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of North-East Nigeria.

    He said that the humanitarian crises in the insurgency affected states of the North-East was enormous, adding that it was constantly being assessed by the ECOWAS Commission.

    Singhatey said that the dire situation in the North-East deserved special attention, adding that it had necessitated the international community and ECOWAS Commission to engage in several interventions.

    He said that the ECOWAS Commission, working with partners had donated one million dollars’ worth of food items to support the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 300,000 dollars for Nigerian refugees in Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

    The ECOWAS Commission vice president said that it also donated 400,000 dollars for the support of affected communities in the North-East.

    According to him, a recent statistics by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates over 65 million out of the eight billion worldwide population are refugees, asylum seekers and IDPs.

    Singhatey said that the African region represents about 30 per cent of the total number of refugees worldwide with a record of 180 million refugees as at 2016.

    He said that in West Africa, displacement and sufferings were caused by conflicts and other natural and human made causes.

    Singhatey said that failing to address the situation of refugees and other persons of concern amount to inviting adverse consequences for the environment.

    He said that the Commission’s Department of Social Affairs and Gender leads the humanitarian works with the goal of a borderless, prosperous and cohesive region with the capacity to effectively prevent and mitigate conflicts.

    He said the goal was also to limit the impact of conflicts and disasters on citizens and residents with a view to achieving human centered development.

    Singhatey said that the commission would continue to support the efforts of the Nigerian Government in assisting refugees, IDPs and other persons of concern.

    Also speaking, Mr. Jose-Antonio Canhandula, UNHCR Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS tasked Nigeria to join the new approach, which he said was the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework.

    He said that the framework was already being piloted by other African countries, including development actors and private sector in Chad, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda.

    Canhandula, however, said that UNHCR was working with various partners to foster the protection of refugees and IDPs, to collectively seek ways to increase support to the government in assisting people.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the occasion was attended by Acting President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who was represented by Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning.

    Others present were Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, the Federal Commissioner, NCFRMI, humanitarian actors and the refugees and IDPs who displayed the wares they made from various skills acquisition programmes.

  • Minister urges Sahel-Sahara states to unite against religious extremism

    The Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali , has called on Ministers of  Defence of Sahel-Sahara states to work closely in dealing with the growing threat of terror and religious extremism in the region.

    Dan-Ali made the made the call at the 6th annual meeting of the ministers of defence of Sahel-Sahara states in Abidjan, a statement by Col. Aliyu Gusau, his Public Relations Officer, said.

    The minister, however, noted that good governance was key to addressing security challenges across Africa.

    Dan-Ali, who also called for provision of job opportunities for youths to enable them have better means of livelihood, said this would check exposure to cyber crime which often made them potential recruits   for terrorists.

    He gave an assurance that Nigeria was committed to the realisation of the objectives of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States CEN-SAD.

    Nigeria also endorsed the establishment of Regional Counter Terrorism Centre with headquarters in Egypt, saying it would   support the   initiative.

    The CEN-SAD ministers also unanimously agreed Nigeria should host its 7th meeting in 2018.

    CEN-SAD, which was established in February 1998 by six countries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali, Niger and Sudan, now has   27 members.

    One of its main goals is to achieve economic unity through the implementation of the free movement of people and goods in order to make the area occupied by member states a free trade area.

     

  • FAO calls for investments in agriculture

    The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has called for critical investments in agriculture and climate change relief to address the crisis in Africa’s strife-torn Lake Chad Basin, where hunger, poverty and a lack of rural development prevail.

    The Director-General of FAO, José da Silva, stated this in Rome following his visit to some of the worst affected areas in Chad and northeastern Nigeria last week.

    Da Silva said the crisis was both humanitarian and ecological, adding agriculture cannot be an “afterthought.”

    The FAO Director-General regretted that hunger, poverty and a lack of rural development prevailed in the crisis-hit region.

    He said, “This is not only a humanitarian crisis, but it is also an ecological one.

    “This conflict cannot be solved only with arms. This is a war against hunger and poverty in the rural areas of the Lake Chad Basin.

    “Peace is a prerequisite to resolve the crisis in the region, but this is not enough.

    “Agriculture, including livestock and fisheries, can no longer be an afterthought.

    “It is what produces food and what sustains the livelihoods of about 90 per cent of the region’s population.”

    NAN

     

  • Nigeria’s economy cannot sustain Lake Chad water transfer project – Minister

    Minister of Water Resources Suleiman Adamu says the Nigerian economy cannot sustain the demands of the proposed inter-basin water transfer from the Congo River Basin to the Lake Chad Basin.

    The minister said this in Abuja on Tuesday during an interactive session with newsmen.

    Adamu said that the inter-basin water transfer project could not be funded by the Federal Government alone, adding that the process might not be sustainable even if it commenced.

    He said the Federal Government and the Lake Chad Basin Commission were, therefore, seeking alternative ways of channelling the water from the Congo Basin into the lake so as to reduce cost and unforeseen circumstances.

    “I told experts in the Lake Chad Basin Commission that we should consider the water channelling option that will allow the water to flow by gravity; it is something we will work at.

    “Presently, I don’t think the economy of this country can support water transfer yet,’’ he said.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the minister once said that the Federal Government was discussing modalities with relevant stakeholders on how to save Lake Chad from drying up.

    The minister underscored the need to draw international attention to the desiccation of the lake in order to save 47 million people whose livelihoods depended on the lake.

    Adamu said that eliciting international support for the project was imperative since more than 47 million people depended on the resources of the lake for farming, fishing and livestock production as well as water supply for drinking and sanitation.

    NAN reports that the Global Resource Information Database of the UN Environment Programme said that Lake Chad had shrunk by over 95 per cent from 1963 to 1998.

    “However, the 2007 satellite images show significant improvement over previous years,” it said.

    Lake Chad is economically important, as it provides water for more than 68 million people living in the four countries adjacent to it — Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger.