The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has held the first activities of the Special Committee tasked with working towards mobilizing resources to assist refugees and displaced persons (IDPs) in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin areas, in accordance with Resolutions 3/44 ICAD and 4/48 ICAD adopted by the OIC's Council of Foreign Ministers at the 48th session held in Islamabad last March. OIC Secretary-General Hussein Ibrahim Taha stressed that the tasks entrusted to the Special Committee are of paramount importance in light of the urgent need to meet the urgent needs of the victims of the crisis in many OIC member countries in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin, especially in Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon. He noted that the mass exodus of populations in these countries, following the acts of the terrorist group Boko Haram, has exacerbated the food crisis in the region and reduced access to basic services for both the displaced and the host communities, despite the great efforts of the concerned governments. Taha also stressed the need to further mobilize support from international partners to provide better humanitarian assistance to millions of affected people, adding that the OIC General Secretariat is determined to work with its donor member states, financial institutions and regional mission in Niger, as well as with its external partners to initiate concrete measures aimed at alleviating the suffering of refugees and displaced persons in the region of the coast and the Lake Chad Basin, under relevant resolutions. It is worth mentioning that the meeting held by the Organization's Department of Humanitarian Affairs witnessed the participation of members of the committee from the countries of the Sahel and Lake Chad area, the Islamic Development Bank and the Islamic Solidarity Fund.
