US Ambassador to visit Nigeria on Boko Haram threat to Lake Chad Basin

Samantha Power, US ambassador to the United Nations will travel to Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad from April 16 – 23 to highlight the growing threat Boko Haram poses to the Lake Chad Basin region.

The visit is prompted by concerns that the Islamist group poses an acute threat to civilians across the Lake Chad Basin, and the group’s increasing lethality and relationship with ISIL gives them cause for alarm.

The Chad Basin is the largest largest endothermic drainage basin in Africa, centered on Lake Chad. It has no outlet to the sea and contains large areas of desert or semi-arid savanna. The basin spans seven countries, including most of Chad and a large part of Niger. It has an ethnically diverse population of about 30 million people as of 2011.

In recent times, there are fears that the group will use the region as a base to launch virulent attacks and destabilize the region.

“As the world notes with sadness the second anniversary of the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria, we must work with partners in the region to develop a comprehensive counter-Boko Haram effort that includes a more coordinated military campaign, improved humanitarian access and response, a well-resourced stabilization and governance strategy, and expanded efforts to combat violent extremism,” states the United States Department of State.

In Nigeria, Power will engage with the Nigerian leadership and civil society in Abuja before traveling to the northeast to visit a settlement camp for civilians displaced by Boko Haram’s violence.

She will host a town hall with students and will participate in a ‘Peace Through Sports’ event with young Nigerians.