As
millions suffer from hunger, disease, illiteracy and grinding poverty
in the Lake Chad region of West Africa, a sinister game of resource
extraction and exploitation is playing out, with geopolitics at the
heart of it all.
by
Eric Draitser
Part
3 - A Humanitarian Crisis and a Resource War
Sadly, most
humanitarian crises in the world stem from politics and greed; the
human tragedy unfolding in the Lake Chad region is no different. At
the heart of the issue is oil.
In recent
years, oil discoveries throughout the Lake Chad Basin have
transformed how the states of West Africa view their economic future.
At the heart of the basin is Lake Chad, surrounded by the countries
of Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger. According to a 2010 assessment
from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Chad Basin has “estimated
mean volumes of 2.32 billion barrels of oil, 14.65 trillion cubic
feet of natural gas and 391 million barrels of natural gas liquids.”
The potential size of these resources has likely attracted the
attention of political and business leaders, both in the region and
internationally.
All of the
countries surrounding the basin have expressed strong desire in
recent years to begin exploiting the energy reserves there. However,
until only very recently, Nigeria had been unable to do so due to the
Boko Haram insurgency. E&P (Exploration & Production), a
publication issued by Hart Energy, noted in March 2014:
“Hopes
of stepping up oil exploration in Nigeria’s Lake Chad Basin have
been dashed by the brutal attacks of Islamic Boko Haram and the
Ansaru sect terrorists in the country’s northeastern region…Between
2011 and 2013, the Nigerian government provided 240 million dollars
to facilitate oil and gas exploration activities in the Lake Chad
Basin.”
So while
Nigeria was forced to put the brakes on its oil exploration and
development in the Chad Basin, its neighbors, particularly Chad,
continued theirs. Nigeria has jump-started its exploration activities
in Lake Chad just in the last few months, presumably thanks to
progress that has been made in the fight against Boko Haram.
As Dr.
Peregrino Brimah explained in 2014, “The Boko Haram insurgency
has conveniently provided Chad, under the government of Idriss Déby,
unfettered access to oil under Nigeria’s soils through 3D oil
drilling from within its territorial borders, which the country
exports.”
It seems
that Déby has engaged in siphoning off Nigeria’s oil wealth and
exporting it for massive profits for himself and his cronies. But of
course, Chad is not alone in this endeavor, as it has company from
Cameroon and Niger, both of whom are doing precisely the same thing.
The regional
dynamic is key here, as fighting has spilled over the borders into
neighboring Cameroon and Niger on numerous occasions. This is
precisely the pretext that the U.S. and its European partners are
using to become further involved militarily in the region.
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