The Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, met with seven other governors from the Lake Chad Basin, in Cameroon on Monday to discuss regional security cooperation and a path to improve stability.
The Spokesperson of the Borno State governor, Isa Gusau disclosed details of the meeting in a statement on Tuesday.
He said the meeting was organized by the Lake Chad Basin Commission, with technical support from the African Union, United Nations Development Programme and Crisis Management Initiative.
The meeting was hosted by the Cameroonian Government in collaboration with the Lake Chad Governors’ Forum.
Other governors in attendance were Zulum from Borno, Issa Lamine of Diffa in Niger Republic; Midjiyawa Bakari of Far North of Cameroon; Abate Edii Jean from North Region of Cameroon; Mahamat Fadoul Mackaye from Lac Province of Chad and Amina Kodjyana Agnes – Hadjer Lami also from Chad, while governors of Adamawa and Yobe States in northeast Nigeria, were represented.
The meeting which was declared open by the Cameroonian Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, accompanied by the Mayor of Younde, Luc Messi Atangana, discussed security issues with a focus on terror attacks and humanitarian impacts in the region.
Also, the meeting reviewed the implementation of strategies for regional stabilization, which were adopted in 2019, during a similar meeting in Niamey, Niger Republic.
However, governor Zulum, in his contributions, tabled Borno’s position, calling on the need to drastically raise the level of trans border cooperation on security before strategic and territorial action plans can work.
He said, “All these territorial action plans can never be feasible without security, the first thing that we need in the entire region is to address security issues. Especially on the shores of Lake Chad.
“It is necessary to undertake holistic security operations in the shores of Lake Chad in order to clear the insurgents, otherwise, we are not going anywhere.”
