Lake Chad Basin Commission a member of the International Network of Basin Organizations (INBO). The Lake Chad Basin Commission was created in 1964 by the four countries bordering Lake Chad: Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. The Republic of Central Africa joined the organization in 1996, Libya was admitted in 2008. Observer status is held by Sudan admitted, Egypt, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The aims of the commission are to regulate and control the use of water and other natural resources in the basin and to initiate, promote, and coordinate natural resource development projects and research. Hydrologically, the Chad
Niger far east as western Niger. The Kanem-Bornu Empire was an empire that existed in modern-day Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Libya. The empire first existed and prospered as the Kanem Empire as early as the 9th century and later as the Kingdom of Bornu until 1900. In the 19th century, contact with Europe began with the first European explorers—notably Monteil (French) and Barth (German)—to travel to Niger. Following the 1885 Berlin conference during which colonial powers outlined the division of Africa into colonial spheres, French military efforts to conquer existing African states were intensified in all French colonies including Niger.