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Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Dr. Yousef bin Ahmed Al-Othaimeen reaffirmed that the security, stability and development of the Lake Chad Region remains a top priority for the OIC.
In his address to the High-level Conference on the Lake Chad Region, organized by the United Nations together with the governments of Germany, Nigeria and Norway in Germany’s capital Berlin on Monday, Al-Othaimeen stressed that the OIC has always been preoccupied with the important developments in the region and the numerous challenges that the countries of the region strive to tackle, including the issues of development, security, the fight against terrorism and climate change.
Indeed, in the past years, the OIC organized joint high-level meetings with the UN on the humanitarian situation in the Lake Chad Basin. It received and sent high-level delegations from and to international organizations, and visited the countries of the region to assess the situation and examine ways and means to assist the people of the region, Al-Othaimeen said in the speech delivered on his behalf by the OIC Permanent Observer in Brussels Ambassador Ismat Jahan.
Consequently, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), a specialized institution of the OIC, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Lake Chad Basin Commission to restore the depleted Lake. Already, the IsDB is engaged in the seven Lake Chad Basin countries to the tune of $9 billion, half of which is in the areas of economic and social infrastructure and private sector development, he added.
The resolution adopted by the latest session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) held in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka in May 2018 requested the member states and relevant institutions to extend all necessary humanitarian and financial assistance to the refugees and internally displaced persons, including capacity building and the development of Lake Chad Region countries affected by Boko Haram violence, to complement the assistance being extended by the international partners.
Source: International Islamic News Agency