With a strong participation of Timbuktu Institute associate researchers’, Dr. Bakary Sambe was the facilitator of this important workshop held in Ndjamena during October. In addition to Professor Saidou Issa who recently joined the Timbuktu Institute as Senior International Fellow, Herman Femeugne, representing the Institute in the far north of Cameroon, and Ms. Khalia Annadif, who coordinates the Institute's activities in Chad, particularly in the Lake region, also participated.

The Multinational Joint Taskforce (MNJTF) and the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organised an inception workshop to articulate an inclusive regional communication strategy to prevent violent extremism in the Lake Chad Basin. This laudable and proactive initiative was in recognition of the need to reinforce information and communication line of operation to counter (prevent) and replace the extremist ideology propagated by the Boko Haram and armed groups with a Constructive Alternative Narrative capable of discouraging extremism, restoring trust, confidence and a secured future.