Volume 9 Number 2, 2024 Faculty of Social Sciences, Enugu State University of Science And Technology EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Prof. Nicholas Attamah MANAGING EDITOR Prof. Barnabas Nwankwo PUBLISHED BY ENUGU STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES 291 Religious Extremism and Poverty Keys to the Spread of Insurgency in Lake Chad Basin. Umeh Lucy Chinwe Department of International Relations Godfrey Okoye University, Thinkers Corner, Enugu. lumeh@gouni.edu.ng Netchy Mbaeze Department of Political Science Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Enugu, Nigeria Ugwuozor Samuel Department of Political Science Godfrey Okoye University, Thinkers Corner Enugu samugwuozor@gouni.edu.ng Abstract This study investigated Religious extremism and Poverty as keys to the spread of Insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin. Regional Security complex Theory propounded by Barry Buzan and Ole Waever, ex-post facto research design, documentary method of data collection and descriptive qualitative method of data analysis were employed in the analysis. This study found that the grievance of religious intolerance and high rate of poverty within the Chad basin paved way for easy spread of insurgency in the region, and that the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) insurgency has eroded the foundation of the Lake Chad Basin's security governance leading to the socioeconomic decline. The researcher therefore recommends that Governments within the Chad Basin should direct a large portion of their resources toward human capital development, capacity building and elimination of socioeconomic challenges in order to wall off poverty and religious extremism. Keywords: Religious extremism, Poverty, Insurgency, Lake Chad, Regional security. INTRODUCTION Insurgency and security-related issues have recently dominated public discourse to the point where other key political, economic, and social events that are happening at the same time have been ignored. Again, the era we currently live in, seems to be the most catastrophic one in human history. Mankind has created nuclear weapons, observed and used technological advancement in battle, murdered a record number of individuals and is destroying an increasing amount of our natural environment. Correspondingly Nye (2001) envisioned insurgency as a global, inter-human, inter-group, inter-ethnic, inter-cultural, inter-religious, and inter-religious danger against established authorities. It might occur in a situation when the parties involved are at odds with one another yet nonetheless work together to accomplish predetermined goals or targets. In many societies today, it has become a challenge to combat insurgency and manage conflicts so that resources and energy of government are now expended more on fighting insurgent groups, managing conflicts, and ensuring the security of lives and properties in our societies. The situation is so bad that most often now government’s resources and attention is devoted to containing conflicts and insurgency to the detriment of the other spheres of lives and these mailto:lumeh@gouni,edu.ng mailto:samugwuozor@gouni.edu.ng 292 domestic squabbles being experienced in countries like Nigeria, Niger, Cameroun and Chad can be best described as armed conflicts which emerged as a result of political interests’, religious intolerance, bad governance, poverty and perceived marginalization, among others. Take for instance in Nigeria, those living in South Eastern Nigeria and delta of the Niger river, feel that the country is maltreating them, in Cameroon the English-speaking region is agitating that the French – speaking section is oppressing them. The Christian faithful in Niger Republic are of the opinion that their Muslim brothers are using the government apparatus to eliminate them or covert them to Islamic religion. While Muslims in Chad are claiming that their Christian brothers are occupying /living in places allotted to them as their inheritance by their founder. This claim and resistance has made the area covering Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger un-peaceful and dangerous to live in. Extant Literature Poverty and Religious Extremism Poverty and religious extremism has created lots of problems in our contemporary society today and such problems can be seen in the destructive activities of the religious jihadist groups within the Chad Basin. Onuoha (2010) noted in his work that religious extremism breeds insurgency which has caused lots of bloodshed in our society. He went further to explain that these militant Jihadist groups are already brainwashed and made to understand that they are fighting religious war and anyone who is not of their religion is an Infidel and should be massacred but he failed to mention the effect of lack of education caused by poverty which made the jihadist groups to assimilate all that they were told about fighting for their faith without asking questions. Ani et al (2014) are of the opinion that Militant Jihadist group fight against everything that had to do with western educational system because of their religious belief that abort schools, universities and businesses. The authors concluded that these Jihadist group see European system of administration as opposing to their religious sec but they failed to establish the fact that this Militant Jihadist groups lack exposure do to poverty and that’s why they keep condemning/fighting education that came as a tool to break poverty and introduce job opportunities together with positive mindset/ attitude. Stewart (2005) observed that Poverty, unemployment, lack of education and inequality are causing a lot of the youths to carry arms in the Chad Basin. About 60% of the population in the Chad Basin are living in poverty. Poverty provides additional challenges to security. Strongly linked to poverty is poor education. Because of poverty most of the youths in the Chad Basin area are not educated and that is why it is easy for some persons who are rich and those who are enlightened to influence them and misdirect them. Lack of basic education has done a great damage to the reasoning of these youths. Because they lack basic education they depend on their leaders for social and political direction. Equally too these their leaders provide them food which is one of the basic necessities of life. These their leaders equally feed them with false religious believe which make them see those who do not profess their religion as enemies. These their leaders put it in their heads that whatever they do to eliminate their perceived religious opponents is righteous before God. Because of their poor education, their leaders feed them with wrong impression that the whole area belongs to them and that any person who do not believe in their own ideology is an enemy and must be eliminated. Some of them look at their condition as if it is caused by the society and they face them as their perceived enemy thus shifting the blame of their condition on the society. Because of lack of basic education these people do not have anything tangible to occupy their minds so they become easy tools for the devil. Lack of basic 293 education deny them the opportunity of being exposed and being ambitious and that is why they are at home causing troubles. Insecurity and social instability resulting from religious intolerance have caused so many issues in Nigeria's social space, according to evidence deposited by Alkali et al. (2012) that they have continued to thwart all efforts aimed at meaningful growth and development in the nation's life. The jihadist organization Boko Haram, which has continued to engulf the nations in the Chad Basin, is a prime example. The authors failed to acknowledge how these religious extremist groups are badly impacted by a lack of solid education. Education would have assisted them in cultivating a tolerant and welcoming attitude toward individuals from various areas. African Union (2017) posited that the Chad Basin is experiencing various forms of conflicts engineered by persons whose aim is to destabilize the polity, others to make themselves known and relevant, still others to offend perceived enemies but the most pronounced is religious based conflicts. Some individuals are hiding under the cloak of religion to cause mayhem in the Chad Basins without pronouncing their intentions. They just brain-wash some idle youths to fight those they perceive are worshipping another God. These youths who do not have anything doing are given money for their upkeep to fight religious war that do not exist necessarily. They are told by their pay masters to enthrone their religion over and above other religions. And rather than making efforts to convert people through persuasion and selling of the tenets of their religion they revert to force. And most unfortunately the Muslim brother believe that anytime they kill a person who do not believe in their own (Muslim) religion that their place/ position before Allah is raised. This notion has given rise to a situation where any conflict even between persons bears religious connotation. Many in the Chad Basin therefore believe that most of the people in the area who carry arms believe that they are fighting religious war. Coincidentally many of the participants see it as a struggle to enthrone their faith practice over and above other’s religion and this is why most of our brothers refer to the situation as the Jihadist war that our Muslim brothers are threatening to launch on those who do not profess their Islamic religion to either eliminate them or convert them. The violent conflict plaguing the Chad Basin is worrisome to the citizen and governments in this region. This is because the situation has serious consequences on social, economic and political matters in the Basin. The governments in this area have tried to ensure peace, but it is eluding them because of faulty strategies. Religious intolerance brought conflict to the many communities that make up the Nigerian state's socio-religious environment (Atoi 2016, Atoi 2019). Uzoma (2004) asserts that the arrival of Islam and Christianity was accompanied by religious strife and civil unrest. This terrible religious evolution began when Western missionaries began disparaging African people's religious thought processes with terms like "primitive," "paganism," and "fetishism," among others. The destruction and burning of sacred objects, altars, and shrines used by practitioners of African indigenous religion ended in the demonization of African religious thought patterns by followers of Christianity and Islam in light of the aforementioned (Atoi 2019). Theoretical Perspective The study anchored on the Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT), as was advanced by Barry Buzan and Ole Waever in the year 2003. Additionally, it has been employed in several regional situations by Väyrynen (1988) and Wriggins (1992), as well as by Waever (1989), Buzan et al. (1990), Buzan and Wver (1992), and Wver et al. (1993) The Regional Security 294 Complex Theory (RSCT) looks at how interdependent different geographic regions, governments as a whole, and international systems are on one another in terms of security. The goal of RSCT is to advance our understanding of how middle-level linkages between national and international security interact. (Buzan 1991, p. 187) The concept covers how security is clustered in geographically shaped regions with the following assumptions: ➢ Security concerns do not carry well over distances; and each actor's security region interacts with the security of the other actors. ➢ There is frequently great security interdependence within a region, but rarely between regions. ➢ The theory assumes that security is a national, regional, and global phenomenon, and that the best way to address security issues is through regional collaboration and integration of different security architectures. ➢ Furthermore, it assumes that a comprehensive solution to security issues must take into account both conventional military and non-military tactics. This implies that security issues would persist in a setting where solely kinetic military strategies are used to combat violent crimes or terrorism. ➢ The theory presupposes that contemporary security approaches to terrorism go beyond direct military bombardment of the terrorists and their hideouts to include addressing all of the conditions that give rise to terrorism, including poverty, bad governance, human rights violations, political exclusion, religious intolerance, and more. Application of the Theory This theory is important to the study of insurgency with an emphasis on religious extremism and poverty as the major feul to the spread of this insurgency in the Chad Basin. Its deployed Multinational Joint Task Force as counter-insurgency measure , for a number of reasons. One was that it clarified how the nations sharing the Lake Chad Basin's security architecture are linked, interact, and depend on one another. It recognized the transnational trend of insecurity (in this example, insurgency) and supported the need for a coordinated and integrated regional response to combat them. Thirdly, the theory reveals security as a complicated phenomenon that spans both the national and regional spectrum, while also revealing the responsibilities of various sectors and stakeholders outside of the conventional kinetic military approach to counterinsurgency. The theory implicitly contends that a regional framework is the only way to improve counterinsurgency operations and methods. The call for effective international and regional counterterrorism measures is then made by the United Nations Security Council. Data Presentation Religious Extremism in Chad Basin’s Insurgency It has become difficult for many societies to control insurgency so that resources and efforts of the government are not spent more on combatting insurgent groups and bringing about peace while also protecting the security of people’s lives and property. The situation is so bad that the government now frequently directs its resources and attention away from other areas of citizen’s lives in order to quell conflicts and insurgencies. For instance, consider the domestic conflicts occurring in nations like Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger Republic where the Jihadist terrorist groups have best characterized the conflicts as religious conflicts. These conflicts are due to religious intolerance, bad governance, and perceived marginalization, among others. Those living in South Eastern Nigeria and those living in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria feel that the rest of the country is maltreating them due to religious differences, in 295 Cameroon the English-speaking region is agitating that the French speaking Muslim section is oppressing them. The Christian faithful in these places are perceiving that their Muslim brothers are using the government apparatus to eliminate or covert them to Islamic religion. The Muslims are claiming that their Christian brothers are occupying /living in places allotted to them as their inheritance by their founder. And some of the Muslim brothers appear to be up in arms to claim what they perceive as theirs and their Christian brothers are not just surrendering their father land. This claim and resistance has made the area covering Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger restive and dangerous to live in. This area covering Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger is referred to as Chad Basin. The Chad Basin is the in-thing now in this part of the world as far as religious intolerance, politics and religious brain washing is concerned. The misunderstanding in the area calls for the attention of all who are concerned about the preservation of human life, and resources there in. This area is characterized by societal disruptions in the form of conflicts, religious wars, agitations and disputes produced dissatisfaction and multilevel individual, group communal and national insecurity that have profound implication on 7peace building operation and democracy promotion efforts (Yourdin2003). The basin has in recent times witnessed unprecedented magnitude of violence that has indeed shaken the lives of the people. The spate of violence and proliferation of ethno-religious crisis have been a serious threat to the security situation in the Basin that in April 2021 the head of state of Chad, Idris Deby, lost his life while fighting to restore peace in his country. In Nigeria the situation appears to be worse. Since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999 violent attacks by various jihadist violent groups have been responsible for the death of many individuals and destruction of properties worth millions of naira in the North. The situation in the Niger Delta will ever remain fresh in our memories. They Niger Delta Youths / militants introduced kidnapping in Nigeria in an attempt to make the government at the Centre hear their complaint. And presently the business has become widespread, thriving and juicy as Fulani Jihadist groups now abduct much of Christian clergies. In the Cameroons the situation is the same, agitations and killing everywhere. The Cameroonians’ are not free from the ISWAP insurgency and they have from time to time experienced the deadly presence of these religious extremists who are fighting because they have been brainwashed. The Republic of Niger is not free too. Niger Republic is facing security crisis in the area boarding Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Mali where armed groups carry out repeated attacks against the security forces and civilians. The country is facing domestic insecurity and regional political instability and religious crisis which have directly and indirectly impacted on the life of the people. Niger is also grappling with influx of refugees fleeing from the militant jihadist group in Nigeria. Having painted a picture of violent religious conflicts in Chad Basin, it is vital to understand the stages of conflict. According to Sandole (1993) violence come in stages which include initiation, escalation, control, maintenance, abatement and termination /resolution. These stages form a process, and in that process, peace is the ultimate target of conflict or perhaps violence. This is because, peace-building efforts are predicated on functionalism that sees society as a complex systems where part work together to promote solidarity, stability and cohesive system that provides concrete and realistic activities through which system of behavior, institutions and other pro-peace initiatives are put in place to advance peaceful co- existence. It is perceived that most citizens of the area believe that the only ingredient that could promote acceptance of religious differences, unity and human development is peace. Peace may not connote only the total absence conflict but absence of all forms of religious violence, hence Kahu (2017) opined that peace is the presence of justice, love and not only the 296 absence of tension. Peace involves fair distribution of power irrespective of one’s religious belief and resource. It is devoid of all forms of discrimination against one religious or the other. According to Gulting in Abeki and Kia (2019) peace-building refers to the process to achieve durable peace which include the creation of institutions that are peace-based which survive on justice, equity and cooperation amongst all religion. The Chad Basin is experiencing various forms of conflicts engineered by persons whose aim is to destabilize the polity, others to make themselves known and relevant, still others to offend perceived enemy but the most pronounced is religious based conflicts. Some individuals are hiding under the cloak of religion to cause mayhem in the Chad Basins without pronouncing their intentions. They just brain-wash some idle youths to fight those they perceive are worshipping another God. These youths who do not have anything doing, so they are given money for their upkeep to fight religious war that do not exist necessarily. They are told by their pay masters to enthrone their religion over and above other religions. And rather than making efforts to convert people through persuasion and selling of the tenets of their religion they revert to force. And most unfortunately the Muslim brothers believe that anytime they kill a person who do not believe in their own (Muslim) religion that their place/ position before God is raised. This notion has given rise to a situation where any conflict even between persons bears religious. Many in the Chad Basin therefore believe that most of the people in the area who carry arms believe that they are fighting religious war. Coincidentally many of the participants see it as a struggle to enthrone their faith practice over and above other’s religion and this is why most of our brothers refer to the situation as the Jihadist war that our Muslim brothers are threatening to launch on those who do not profess their Islamic religion to either eliminate them or convert. The violent conflict plaguing the Chad Basin is worrisome to the citizens and governments in this region. This is because the situation has serious consequences on social, economic and political life in the Basin. The governments in this area have tried to ensure peace, but it is eluding them because of faulty strategies. There are overarching issues that challenge peace and security in the Chad Basin region. These issues lay the foundations on which to place specific cases and the general cure of what appear to be Jihadist war in the Chad Basin. These overarching issues include religious intolerance, fanatic and extremism are important arts of the dynamics of the disputes in the Chad Basin. The conflicts and misunderstanding in the Chad Basin is therefore as a result of many misgiving and inordinate ambitious. However, the perpetrators of the violence have given these misunderstanding some religious undertones to make it appear religious in nature so that some of those who are fighting feel they are defending or rather protecting their faith. This notion has made peace building difficult because those who are growing up are being indoctrinated that there is a war going between their religion and adherents of other religion and that is why the persecutors are called militant Jihadists. This militancy has been on for many years and it is non-directional because it is not a denomination versus another denomination rather it is between religious, between sects, between the state and groups, among tribes, between the elites and the uneducated. It is even political in nature and because of the nature, all peace-building efforts appear to be hitting the rock. The Nigerian Experience of Attacks on Churches/Christians The presence of Islam State of West Africa (ISWAP) in Chad Basin particularly could be traced back to the 8th to 10th century. The spread of the faith in regions that are now the modern states 297 of Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroun, Niger and even Chad was in actuality a gradual process. Apparently, the early presence of Islam in these states was as a result of trade and religion. For instance, Islam arrived and was taught in Arabic language. Islam thus, encouraged the religious bond among Northern Nigeria, Niger, Cameroun, Chad and these states subsequently embraced the religion. (Hill, 2009). Arabic language being the widely accepted Islamic language and due to differences in Islamic religious sect doctrines which is not compatible with the Christian belief, some Islamic extremist preferred to be addressed by their Arabic name JAMA’ATU AHIIS SUNNA LIDDA’AWATI WAL-JIHAD- which means “PEOPLE COMMITTED TO THE PROPAGATION OF THE PROPHET’S TEACHINGS AND JIHAD” and have always targeted churches, driven by both opportunistic and ideological considerations which present Christians as INFIDELS that should be killed or get converted to their own religion/faith. On the 19th of November 2021, Christians in Zamfara State of Nigeria were warned to keep away from public services in their respective churches. According to the senior counsel for Global Affairs at the American Center for law and justice (ACLJ) Mike Popoe, about 1500 Christians lost their lives to religious struggle of the Militant Jihadist in 2021 and He further noted that the government authorities in Nigeria have failed to capture the killings as religious motivated acts of terror. Terumbur Karyo, the chairman of Ukum Local Government Council in Benue also notified the people that in less than two days, over 70 Christians has been massacred in Gbeji community and more than 100 in Udei/ Yelewata villages respectively. By 30th of May 2021, Ado local government of Benue state witnessed early Sunday morning invasion of Ndigwe village, Ataloga village, Ekpufu village, Odokem villiage, Ekile village, Nduobasi and Obakota villages. That Sunday morning attack was simply meant to discourage these Christians from attending to their normal Sunday worships. Armed Conflict Location and Event Data has presented the following statistics of the Militant Jihadist groups invasion of the churches as 19 in 2020, 33 for 2021, 34 in 2022,. His data also presented 1664 people killed in the churches strike, about 390 persons injured and 188 churches sanctuaries desecrated. In 2021, Plateau state recorded killing of 10 Christians, over 100 houses set blast with the residents of about 700 homeless. (Oluwole Ojewale, 2022). More so, 2020 witnessed series of churches attacks by these religious extremist groups in Wusasa and Sabon-Gari which led to death of over 100 Christian faithfuls in the above mentioned cities of Kano state. Again by February 2nd of 2020, the world saw Nigerian Christians take to the street to protest the beheading of local church leader in Adamawa, to protest against the growing persecution of Christian communities within the Northern part of Nigeria especially and also clamoring for the safety of their lives across 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states on Sunday. (World Watch List, 2020). According to Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), 2019 witnessed numerous severe strikes/ abduces on churches, some 1000 Nigerian Christians have been killed, over 500 Christians were captured, four pastors killed and about 730,000 dollars equivalent remitted as ransom according to Christian Association of Nigeria. By 2015, Kaduna state recorded the highest score in kidnapping of Christian faithful while Plateau state witnessed in 2013 the religious militants bloody launched on Christians which claimed about 86 lives with dozens injured. More so, 2012 was another climate record of churches invasions: 3 churches bombed in northern Nigeria (Kaduna), Christ church Zaira, COCIN in Jos, St Finbarrs’s Catholic Church in Jos attacked on 11th of March with about 19 people killed, Suicide bomber drove car into Harvest field church of Christ in Bauchi killing 9 and 35 injured. Time bomb was discovered at St Michael Church in Railway Quarters Maiduguri. 2014 saw the unceasing strikes on Christians in the northern part of Nigeria, the International Christian Concern noted that the 298 attack was regular. About 20 churches was pull down, 150 Christians massacred with series of strike on Christian communities in Benue state all in 2014. The year 2011 witnessed about 33 insurgency killings, bombings and massacre in Abuja, Kaduna, Katsina Borno, Bauchi, Damaturu with the higher massacre done in Maduguri state together with the 25th December bombings that claimed lives of over 200 persons and many seriously injured at St Theresa Catholic Church Madalla Niger State. April 24th 2018 attack on Saint Ignatius Catholic Church in Mbalom Benue that took the lives of two priest and seventeen church members that came for morning mass. Finally, the Islamic state of West African Province (ISWAP) saga in Nigeria started by attacking everyone within their acclaimed cities but later spread more to the INFIDELS (Uncountable Christians and churches were badly affected) but few mosques within their domain in Zamfara ( Ju’at mosque), Niger state 2018, Mubi 2017, Kano 2014, Maidufuri 2017, Katisna 2021, Taraba, Borno and Bauchi was affected. Cameroonians Experience of Religious Extremist Attacks on Churches/Christians The attitudes of religious extremist groups against adherents of other religions in Cameroun have deteriorated. This is due to the fact that positivity breeds positivity and that of having a positive outlook can make all the difference in a person’s ability to escape poverty. People should concentrate on the opportunity for improvement and growth rather than concentrating on their negative thoughts and emotions, as happened in the northern part of Cameroun that witnessed the preeminence of the religious Militant groups’ activities of Modibbo Adama which brought serious division between the followers of indigenous religion and Islam. Lang (2015, p.61). Observing the religious militants activities in Cameroun, Voll (2015, p.1185) simply posited that the early Militant Jihadist group moves were religiously motivated and he also asserted that the make use of destructive means of propagating their radical faith in Cameroun where some number of churches have been destroyed, Sanctuaries defiled, Christians and their clergy adduced in the capital city of Cameroun. Chapman (2007) made a clarion call on catholic, protestant and Pentecostal churches about ISWAP manifold bombardments on Christian life and properties in the northern part of Cameroun and he further advised all Christians to be on their guard against the underground surge of a bitter religious strife and hunt for sect or domination. Again, 2013 witnessed a priest named Georgas Vandenbeusch of a French national who stays in Cameroun kidnapped, by 2014, another two Italian clergy and a Canadian nun was abducted from a church in Tchere, Cameroun. (Guibbaud 2014, p.2.) Churches in another Cameroonian town known as Mora witnessed also sudden attacks that made them close down their churches during the 2014 Christmas and New Year vigils and some of the Baptist mission churches that lay at the boundary of Cameroun-Nigeria were destroyed. By August 2014, these Jihadist militants group unleashed violence via beheading of three elders of the church namely Zerubbabel, Tchamaya and Samuel Lade, and occupied Mouldougoua and Assighassia., burnt down a pastors residence and also ransacked his church in the village of Cherif Moussay. Many Christians took to their heels because their resident has been converted to a den of religious militants (world watch monitor 2015). More so, a catholic church was attacked, three persons massacred and the church set ablaze in the Northern part of Cameroun in 2015, July 28th. Another town outside of Mora was attacked, eight persons killed and the church pulled and people ran for their lives. According to the British-based Christian institute (2015) about 4000 Cameroonian Christians lost their lives to these religious extremist in 2014 while over 6000 Christians were made refugees in Manawa 299 camp because their area has been taken over. From the above analysis, it was discovered that uncountable Christians lost their lives and homes. Numerous Churches were desecrated, ransacked and burnt down but only about five mosques (Mosque in Far North region 2016, Mosque in Kerawa Northern part of Cameroun 2017, Mosque in Nguetchewe village 2016, Mosque in Sanda Wadjiri at a village in South of Kolofafa 2017 and a mosque in kouyape 2017) came under attack that was directed on individuals. Chad Experience of Religious Extremist Attacks on Churches/Christians: Chad just like other states in the Chad Bain is faced with religious crisis that resulted in historical target of Christians with the intention of wiping out their witnessing to Christ and implanting Islamic Caliphate in the whole of Chad and West Africa in general. They do this via destruction of churches and suicide bombing attacks on Christians. These militant Jihadist group called ISWAP-BH strike the Christian population within capital of Chad July 10th and 11th of 2015. They were reports on how the religious militants attacked Chadian churches and homes which made the entire Christians to flee their villages for a while but on their return, they realized that their five (5) Churches and homes have been burnt to ashes. This happened in seven (7) villages in the Leo Chiefdom with about fifty (50) Christians massacred, many injured together with over five thousand (5000) Christians made homeless. International Christian Concern also posited that in 2021, the President of Chad Idriss Deby Itno lost his life to these religious extremist group when he went to show solidarity with the frontlines of the clash and his death threw Christians in Chad into Serious dilemma because they remain the target of the Militant Jihadist group. Again, even Barnabas Aid in 2020 asserted that the senior Chadian Church Leader Rev Clement Hiama and Christians in Chad were faced with severe threat that is still affecting the Christian faith there till date. And to worsen the ugly situations of Christians in Chad, the Chadian authorities erected a sultan within the Christian population area known as the South Mogen- Chari region (World Watch Monitor 2018). The erection of the sultan got Chad Christians exposed to death both in N’Djamena, Islands and Sore of the Lake, where about 7000 were displaced. None of the mosque nor Muslims was attacked, instead all the strike was directed to Christian settlements and Churches. Niger Republic Experience of Religious Extremist Attacks on Churches/Christians: World Watch List posited in 2015 that Niger Republic consist of 98 percent of Muslims and only 0.3 percent of Christians, yet they had wonderful relationship amongst themselves not until the Militant Jihadist group launched an attack on the Christians in 2015 and when they came chanting “Slaughter all the infidel, Massacre all the Christians”. Aid to the Church attested to this as they stated how serious the aggression against the Christians was. Bishop Ambrose Quedraogo of the Nigerien diocese of Maradi noted on 6th July 2015, that the attack came as a surprise to them because there has been smooth cooperation amongst Christians all over the country irrespective of your religion. He also added that despite the bloody attacks by the religious extremist group, the Faith of the Christians still remains strong and also the churches activities still moves on with or without the structures that were already destroyed. Christians and Churches within the major city of Niamey and the second biggest city Zinder of Niger Republic have experienced brutal attacks. The churches in the federal capital were all ransacked and set ablaze except the Cathedral church and other churches in the remotest part of the city. Even a newly erected church that was dedicated in 2014, was also burnt down. This happened on 10th of January 2015 after the attack at the French editorial office of satirical magazine. About 46 protestant churches and 15 catholic churches were completely burnt. Over 200 Christians in Zinder then took shelter in the states that bordered Niger Republic (ACN, 300 2015). Dennis Peter and Maria Lozano of the Aid to the Church observed that in the year 2015, a religious congregation of the Nuns flee from the cities of Niamey and Zinder because of the heavy attacks by the militant Jihadist group which they called “Ethnic Cleansing of Christians” 173 Christians were injured, 10 lost their lives in the church, Parish house belonging to the white fathers, Convent of sisters of Assumption, their cars and schools were all set ablaze. The Nuns were forced to run to the military base while Father Ghistaine was rushed to the clinic for medical attention on his injury and about 40 churches of the Catholics, Protestants and Evangelical missions were burnt. More so, these militant Jihadist group otherwise called Boko Haram, stormed the cities of Fantio and Doibel in the Tillaberi region of south west of Niger Republic and massacred men in their numbers, their wives and children ran to the Dori region of Burkin-Faso to take refuge. Christian houses, sacred specie, vestments and statues burnt with about two hundred Christians in IDP. (ACN, 2015). Again the Jihadist group attacked, the small Christian community in the Tillaberi region twice and slaughtered about 58 persons in the first attack and 137 people in the second attack all took place in March 2021. (Barnabas Aid, 2021). A pastor, who is also the president of the Evangelical church in the Niger Republic attested to the terrorist attacks on churches and Christians across the five regions. A total of 68 churches were burnt down together with numerous Christian’s homes which made the believers to flee for their lives (Morning Star News, 2014). Lastly, numerous churches and Christians came under the attack and were also burnt by the religious jihadist group but only three mosques namely: Mosque in Maza-Kula village in Mashegu Local Government Area, Mosque in the Tillaberi region of Republic OF Niger and Mosque in the southeastern city of Diffa in Niger Republic was attacked. It simply shows that the major target are the Christians because of religious differences. Poverty as a Contributing Factor of Insurgency Poverty and inequality are causing a lot of the youths to carry arms in the Chad Basin. About 60% of the population in the Chad Basin are living in poverty. Poverty provides additional challenges to security (Stewart 2005). Strongly linked to poverty is poor education. Because of poverty most of the youths in the Chad Basin area are not educated and that is why it is easy for some persons who are rich and those who are enlightened to influence them and misdirect them. Lack of basic education has done a great damage to the reasoning of these youths. Because they lack basic education they depend on their leaders for social and political direction. Equally too these their leaders provide them food which is one of the basic necessities of life. These their leaders equally feed them with false religious believe which make them see those who do not profess their religion as enemies. These their leaders put it in their heads that whatever they do to eliminate their perceived religious opponents is righteous before God. Because of their poor education, their leaders feed them with wrong impression that the whole area belongs to them and that any person who do not believe in their own ideology is an enemy and must be wiped out. Some of them look at their condition as if it is caused by the society and they face their perceived enemy shifting the blame of their condition on the society. Because of lack of basic education these people do not have anything tangible to occupy their minds so they become easy tools for the devil. Lack of basic education deny them the opportunity of being exposed and being ambitious and that is why they are at home causing troubles. Poverty line is categorized into two, the upper poverty line of 5.50 USD and the lower poverty line which is 1.90 USD. Residents living within the range of the upper poverty rate are regarded 301 as living in moderately poor situation while those living in lower poverty level are referred to be extremely poor. Looking at the different countries population percentage of poverty headcount ratio at national poverty lines below, one would understand that residents living in extreme poverty line are at its peak over the countries other Chad Basin and most of the residents are not able to come by a sustainable living standard. The Table of poverty rate percentage of Nigeria, Chad, Cameroun and Niger Republic. YEARS: NIGERIA’S PERCENTAGE OF POVERTY RATE % CHAD’S PERCEN TAGE OF POVERTY RATE % CAMEROUN PERCENTAGE OF POVERTY RATE % REPUBLIC OF NIGER’S PERCENTAGE OF POVERTY RATE % 2021 45% 42% 25.3% 41.8% 2020 40 71.4% 66.7% 42% 2019 40% 66,2% 55.1% 40.8% 2018 40% 42.3% 40% 40.1% 2017 41.4% 47% 40% 48.9% 2016 43% 46.7% 44.9% 54.5% 2014/2015 42.49% 48% 37.5% 48.9% 2012/2013 42,5% 43% 40% 64.9 2010/2011 43.5% 46.7% 40% 95.80% Source: data.worldbank.org Explaining the above data in the table, the World Bank simply made it clear that the overall poverty rate of the Chad Basin countries is alarming (60%) and most residents of the countries are living below the globally accepted rate of standard living ($5.50 per day). The poverty line is the percentage of money required, in order to meet basic needs such as housing, food and water. People who live below this standard may feel pressured, frustrated and angry. NIGERIA : Take for instance Nigeria where about 95.1 million Nigerians are living in Poverty with over 70 million residents in extreme poverty line and this finger covers about 33 percent of the country’s population. The National Nigerian Bureau of Statistics also posited that out of 10 residents of Nigeria, 4 are living below the national poverty line which #137.430 annually and about 31.9 percent of the population is living below international poverty line of 1.90 USD. NIGER REPUBLIC: About 10million residents are affected negatively because of the extreme poverty rate of 42.9%, 80% living on less than 2 euro per day and every 2 out of 3 Nigeriens live below the acceptable national poverty level. Again, more than 40% of the population are living on less than one USD per day and this made hunger one of the most significant problems the population faces daily. CHAD: 42 Percent of the population of Chad are estimated to be below the poverty line. The estimated 14 million rural residents of Chad or 87 Percent of the country’s population, survive on less than $1 a day by 2018 as deposited by Oxfam international. World Bank (2021) states that Chad set its national standard at 2400 Kcal per day and that the country’s poverty evaluation report noted that poverty is pervasive and extremely severe in Chad and that 42 percent (89.0 million) residents, live below the national poverty line of 242,092 FCFA (roughly $400) per year. Around 38.8 percent of males and 41.4 percent of women in Chad were employed and living below the international poverty line as of 2021, according to UN women.org. The percentage of people who live below the federal poverty level is 46.7percent. 302 CAMEROON According to the results of the Cameroonian National Statistics (INS), 37.5 percent of the country’s population, or 21,657,488 people, are poor and live below the XAF 339,715 per person per year poverty level. Nearly eight out of ten Cameroonians are considered to be impoverished. Cameroon has 71.00 percent of its population classified as extremely poor, according to the most recent international poverty ranking rate of US $5.50 per day. In summary, it was noted that poverty fuel anger and frustration, which in turn fuels violence. According to Sultaima (2008), a community that is impoverished remains a fertile setting for enticing and recruiting people into the group such as Insurgent group. Conclusion with Findings It was found that the grievance of religious intolerance and the high rate of poverty among the inhabitants of Chad Basin paved way for easy spread insurgency within the Basin. It was also found that the insurgency had eroded the foundation of the Lake Chad Basin's security governance, leading to the deaths of countless civilians and soldiers, mass kidnappings, displacement of numerous people from their homes and local governments, and a decline in socioeconomic activity in the region. Recommendations Based on the findings, the researcher makes the following recommendations: Governments within the Chad Basin should direct a large portion of their resources toward human capital development and capacity building in order to eradicate poverty which creates the avenue for easy brainwashing of the youth to join the religious extremism group in spreading insurgency in the Basin. 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