Nigeria was on Saturday hosting talks on Boko Haram with regional and Western powers, as the United Nations warned of the militants’ ties to the Islamic State group and its threat to African security. “And these has indeed an impact on the terrorist groups and their ability to finance arms trafficking as well as terror attacks”.
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Buhari has invited leaders from Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, whose troops will make up a new regional force against Boko Haram, which has been pushed to northeast Nigeria’s borders around Lake Chad.
Boko Haram had pledged loyalty to Islamic State a year ago.
Top envoys from the U.S., Britain, the European Union and other organizations and presidents of neighboring countries joined President Mohammadu Buhari of Nigeria for a regional security summit. “The UK is providing up to 32m pounds over three years to fund and support delivery of humanitarian aid to displaced people who are most in need of food, water, sanitation and emergency healthcare”, he said.
United States ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, who visited northeast Nigeria and northern Cameroon last month, said 9.2 million people in the wider region were affected by the conflict.
Pledging full support of his country against the extremist group, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said it was imperative to maintain the momentum to win the war against Boko Haram and build the right conditions for stability in the region.
The spokesman said Boko Haram had set up camp in the forest after fleeing another military operation in neighboring Nigeria. He spoke before a meeting that will be attended by presidents of Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin, as well as representatives of the USA, U.K and European Union.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said the Lake Chad Basin Commission estimated some 960 million euros (just over $1 billion) was needed in the short and medium term to develop the region.
According to Guardian, President Buhari is now ting talks on Boko Haram with Hollande, leaders from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and high-ranking diplomats from the United States over the terrorist activities of the Islamic sect to African security.
“These efforts can address the drivers of extremism that helped give rise to Boko Haram in the first place”, said Blinken, warning that otherwise “Boko Haram 2.0. rises from its ashes”.
In 2014, Boko Haram captured swaths of territory in Nigeria and declared a self-styled caliphate.
They stressed the need for the global community to close ranks with countries of the Lake Chad basin to tackle the root causes of terrorism and the general development of the region.
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The Islamic militant Boko Haram sect is perpetrating a violent campaign to carve an Islamic state in Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country of over 180 million people.
