Climate change and changing environmental insecurity in the Lake Chad Region

The Lake Chad region is traditionally made up of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria. However, in recent years, the Central African Republic, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya and Congo-Brazzaville have joined the Lake Chad Basin Organization. The region has faced different forms of insecurity over the years. This study adopted a mixed method research analysis with data largely collected from the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Lake Chad Basin Authority as well as the Niger and Chadian consulates in Nigeria. The study also adopted the theory of insecurity flow model, which revealed that the traditional threats to peace and security in the region were driven by climate change, including but not limited to cattle rustling, drought, famine, desertification, mass repatriation, and international banditry. However, the study found that the dominant nature of insecurity in the area has changed to terrorism, illegal arms trafficking, global warming and environmental insecurity, kidnapping, killing of government and security personnel as well as mass killing of the citizenry. The study recommended environmental management, democratic transformations, increased security diplomacy and citizen diplomacy, multi-lateral and bi-lateral counter-terror management, and increased border patrol by national and international security networks.