Building on the outcomes of the previous conferences on the Lake Chad Region, held in 2017 and 2018, the aim of the third was to advance solutions requiring collaborative approaches between local and central governments and humanitarian, stabilization, development and peace actors. The conference was held from 23-24 January 2023 in Niamey. The organizers sought to explore how these actors can work together and better collaborate with State authorities in the pursuit of durable solutions for people affected by the crisis. An additional purpose of the conference was to mobilize political and financial support to tackle the crisis in the Lake Chad Region.
The conference included a session on a comprehensive approach to managing the exit from violent extremist groups. The United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) made a statement from the floor to remind the audience of the serious atrocities committed in the Lake Chad region and the international obligations of States, domesticated in their legal regimes, to bring terrorists to justice. CTED stressed the importance of screening to determine who should be prosecuted and of a clear prosecutorial strategy to hold leaders and authors of serious offences responsible. Sustainable peace and reconciliation require that justice be rendered. While traditional justice can bring some answers, the concept of transitional justice requires a broader and more comprehensive approach.
CTED noted that, more than at previous events, there a was a growing consensus that justice, including the rights of victims, was an integral component of any exit strategy from violent extremism conducive to terrorism.
In its resolution 2349 (2017), the Security Council urges the States of the Lake Chad Basin region to develop and implement a regional and coordinated strategy that encompasses transparent, inclusive, human rights-compliant disarmament, demobilization, deradicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration initiatives, in line with strategies for prosecution, where appropriate, of persons associated with Boko Haram and ISIL (Da'esh). In the same resolution, the Council urges States of the region to develop and implement consistent policies for promoting defections from Boko Haram and ISIL (Da'esh) and for deradicalizing and reintegrating those who do defect.
The 2018 Regional Strategy for the Stabilization, Recovery and Resilience (RSS) of the Boko Haram-affected Areas of the Lake Chad Basin Region sets forth a "Regional sub-Strategy on the Screening, Prosecution, Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Boko Haram-associated Persons in the Lake Chad Basin Countries" (Regional SPRR Strategy), the aim of which is to develop a common overall approach to screening, prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration (SPRR). The Regional SPRR Strategy was developed with the support of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) and the Terrorism Prevention Branch of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC/TPB). In 2020, the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), UNODC and CTED launched a joint project entitled “Supporting Lake Chad Basin countries to develop and implement strategies for the screening, prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration of Boko Haram-associated Persons”. Thus far, 12 national, bilateral and national activities have been implemented under this project, including the bilateral Niger-Nigeria workshop held in Abuja from 7 to 10 June 2022. Other United Nations entities - notably the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - are carrying out complementary efforts.