Lake Chad shrinks

"The water body has diminished by 90% since the 1960s due to overuse and climate change effects. Conflict between herders and farmers became common as livelihoods were lost. Families who relied on the lake started migrating to other areas in search of water." —Leon Usigbe, Nigerian journalist Lake Chad is one of Africa's largest fresh bodies of water, providing a critical source of water and food to the Lake Chad Basin, which covers parts of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. Its surface area has plummeted from 26,000 square kilometers in the early 1960s to less than 1,500 square kilometers in 2019. The shrinking of the lake has displaced millions of people, contributing to food and water insecurity that the United Nations has declared a humanitarian crisis since 2016. The region has been marked by economic inequality, terrorism, and government corruption, all of which complicate humanitarian and conservation efforts.