There is the lake, a fragile body of water and source of life, at the heart of Sahel. To get close to its banks though, is a challenge. Lake Chad is slowly vanishing, a victim of climate change and desertification that has reduced its surface by 90% from 1960 to today. What little is left is dangerous to access, as the lake is situated at the heart of the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflict with the armed forces of the Boko Haram group.
INTERSOS is today the only humanitarian organization that brings help to the islands scattered along the northern shore of Lake Chad territory. Our operation base is located near the town of Bol. An image search of the territory will not yield beautiful, lacustrine views, rather views of desolation. The recent history of the lake is a long story of violence and insecurity that has taken the population to its extremes. In the Lake Region, escape is now a normal life objective. So is survival. Over half the population, 61% of the residents have abandoned their homes and are displaced. Of these, 60% are minors. Many of these displaced persons have endured through the escape experiences more than once. Repeated displacement, and the search for a safe refuge, or at least a safer one than the last.
For the 110,000 displaced persons scattered across the islands, canals and water mirrors that constitute the lake shore, in the midst of Boko Haram militarization and attacks, INTERSOS represents a vital lifeline of assistance. INTERSOS aid here consists of supplying clean water and sanitation, distributing seeds and other basic necessities, and support for fishing with respect to environmental regulations. Our interventions are to help strengthen the peoples’ extreme resilience. What can we expect in the next months? There is “the risk of a worsening humanitarian situation,” underlines INTERSOS regional mission head Papy Kabwe – “The crisis of Lake Chad is the sum of three interdependent crisis factors: a security crisis, with over 300,000 displaced persons facing violence and armed conflict; an environmental crisis, in which seasonal floods act as an extreme counter to the growing desertification, fueling food insecurity, and a health crisis, reflecting an urgent lack of access for basic medical support. None of these factors seem destined to improve.”
COVID-19 has made the life of the population even harder – not just because of the additional pressures on the fragile and inadequate sanitary system (an 87% increase of people needing assistance*), but also limitations on the food supply and other essential goods in an arid country with no sea access and closed borders. From 2020 to the first month of 2021, the situation has become even worse due to the legacy of damage left by the extraordinary floods last summer: villages destroyed, crops and livestock abandoned. The length of the crisis, exacerbated by chronic lack of support funding, increases the weight of the needs. For five years, from 2015 to 2020, financing were reduced and meet less than 50% of the individuated needs.The situation will certainly not improve in 2021.
Civilian infrastructure continues to deteriorate there are no medical or educational facilities. There is no availability of basic necessities. 19,000 individuals die every year in Chad due to complications linked to a lack of access to clean water and basic hygiene, which furthers the proliferation of illnesses. In the islands, some of these shortages are even more evident. “The population suffers particularly from the absence of educational, medical and nutritional support,” continues Papy Kabwe, “but our presence represents a garrison, guaranteed by the constant communication with the communities and their leaders.” The lake continues to exist, nevertheless. For thousands of years, its waters have resisted the hot, arid desert. Today more than ever, together with its peoples, it has to resist the destruction brought on by man.
*From 950,000 to 1.8 million according to formal UN estimates