The four African nations most threatened by Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram must put aside mutual distrust and agree on a command structure and strategy for a fledgling regional force if they want to defeat the militants, a top U.N. official said.
Mohamed Ibn Chambas, U.N. Special Representative for West Africa, said the international community could only help Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon once they clearly laid out the assets they lacked to fight Boko Haram.
A month before presidential elections in Nigeria, Boko Haram has seized swathes of new territory. It has killed hundreds of people in northern Nigeria, displaced several thousand more and seized the base of a regional military taskforce meant to fight it.
The fall of Baga this month, where as many as 2,000 people are reported to have been killed, led to increased calls for international support to halt an insurgency that has spread from northern Nigeria to threaten parts of Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
No comments:
Post a Comment