The four Lake Chad Basin countries have warmly welcomed this joint initiative, as part of their own ongoing efforts to secure and stabilize the region.
The Facility will start operating on 1 September for 2 years in the eight affected regions of the 4 riparian countries such as Cameroun, Chad, Niger, and Nigeri. it will serve as a rapid response mechanism to help the local authorities curtail the ability of Boko Haram insurgency by restoring and extending effective civilian security; improve the delivery of basic services and livelihoods.
The official presentation of the Facility was one of the high points of the 2nd Meeting of the Lake Chad Governors’ Forum which opened today in Niamey, under aegis of the Lake Chad Basin Commission with the support of the African Union. The Forum is hosted by the Government of Niger and supported with funds from the Government of Germany.
The Facility is anchored in the Regional Stabilization Strategy (RSS) for Lake Chad, a ground-breaking initiative led by the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) and adopted by its Member States in August 2018, and endorsed by the African Union Peace and Security Council in December 2018.
The Facility will be implemented with a planned budget of $100 million for the first phase across the four countries, which have expressed their continued strong commitment to leading necessary stabilization efforts in the region, including through the Facility. The Governments of Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom have also lent their full support to the implementation of the Facility, and plan to provide funding to it during its first phase.
