Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, renowned diplomat and former President of the ECOWAS Commission, has arrived in Abuja ahead of Thursday's Inaugural International Lecture of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). Chambas' plane, from Accra, Ghana, touched down at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, at about 8.10 p. m. Chambas, who is currently the African Union Chief Mediator on Sudan, was received by a team of NAN officials and members of staff of the Ghana High Commission in Abuja. He warmly acknowledged greetings from the reception party before he was chauffered out of the airport. At Thursday's NAN lecture, Chambas, as guest speaker, will speak on 'Insecurity in the Sahel (2008-2024): Dissecting Nigeria's Challenges, Genesis, Impacts and Options'. President Bola Tinubu and members of the Federal Executive Council, as well as a host of dignitaries, including the top echelon of the country's political establishment, are expected to attend the lecture. Also expected are the top brass of the military, m embers of the diplomatic corps and the academic community. Media executives as well as leading traditional rulers in states most impacted by security challenges are also expected at the event. NAN reports that Nigeria's security challenges cannot be divorced from its regional heritage in the Sahel - a vast landmass which also traverses the troubled countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Cameroon. In 2020, 4,660 people were killed in the region while another 2,600 civilians lost their lives in banditry attacks in 2021, a recent report stated. See also UNDP, FG partnership needed to achieve inclusion, equity - Minister NAN also reports that the lecture will interrogate the root causes of the violence troubling the Sahel, examine its impact on Nigeria's territorial integrity and lay bare the options available to policy strategists. Source: News Agency of Nigeria