A major humanitarian crisis continues to grip Africa’s Lake Chad basin, where violence and destruction have caused huge population displacements, left hundreds of thousands of children trapped behind conflict lines and led to a dramatic increase in malnutrition. The Lake Chad Basin is the site of a large-scale, complex and protracted humanitarian emergency. Lake Chad Crisis For nine years, conflict has shattered the Lake Chad basin, reaching into four countries and resulting in 10.7 million people urgently needing humanitarian assistance. The Lake Chad Basin humanitarian emergency is among the most severe in the world. Chad crisis. The impacts of climate change seed additional pressure for conflict, while conflict undermines communities’ capacity to cope with climate risks.

L ake Chad is a hydrological miracle – a life-giving, freshwater lake in the Sahara desert. Here is why the Lake Chad crisis should matter to you:

More than two million people have been displaced and five million regularly do not have access to enough food in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, where the armed fighters have waged a nine-year insurgency. Lake Chad Basin Complex Emergency Response Program Map - 03-31-20 (pdf - 1 MB) Key Developments USAID is responding to the complex emergency in the Lake Chad Basin region, including areas of Nigeria , Cameroon , Chad , and Niger .
Lake Chad is the principal life source of the Sahel, a semiarid band that spans the width of Africa and separates the Sahara, in the north, from the savanna, in the south.

Lake Chad is caught in a conflict trap. The last endemic countries in … Mental healthcare is an increasingly significant part of MSF’s work in the Lake Chad region, given the psychological suffering of the host, refugee and internally displaced populations. Reaching across Nigeria , Cameroon , Niger and Chad, it is a huge and complex humanitarian crisis with many causes. The Lake Chad crisis: drivers, responses and ways forward by Toby Lanzer October 2017 Over the course of the past year, the international aid community has become more aware of the crisis in north-eastern Nigeria and across the Lake Chad Basin as a whole. After several years of violence in northeast Nigeria, in 2014 the conflict between military forces and non-state armed groups in the region expanded into Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Most of the 2.4 million displaced families - including 1.4 million children – were taken in by local communities (that count among the world’s poorest and most vulnerable), sharing what little they have. Lake Chad Basin: World's most neglected crisis rages on.

The vast shallow lake, with a surface area equivalent to Lake Erie only 40 years ago, is […] Over 2.6 million people have been displaced by the violent acts of a group popularly known as Boko Haram, and the military operation that has followed. Far from abating, the conflict has intensified and spilled over into neighboring countries.

Climate change and conflict dynamics create a feedback loop.