The Obama administration will send a team to Nigeria in the next few weeks to discuss with the government ways to renew cooperation in the fight against the sect, a senior U.S. diplomat said yesterday.
In N’Djamena, the capital of Chad yesterday, President Buhari and his host President Idris Derby pledged to pursue the sect members “everywhere”.
They spoke after a bilateral meeting on the activities of the sect, which has been operating across the borders.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was at Buhari’s inauguration last week. This underscores U.S. interest in working with his government.
Tensions emerged between the former government of President Goodluck Jonathan and the Obama administration last year over corruption and human rights abuses by the military in its campaign to crush Boko Haram.
In his inauguration speech, Buhari vowed to defeat Boko Haram and called the group, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq in March, “mindless” and “godless”.
”With the new government, we are optimistic we can reset the relationship,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a congressional hearing. “We want to work with him and have expressed that to him.”
She said Buhari had committed both publicly and privately to “do everything possible to address the situation in terms of resources and staff” to tackle Boko Haram, which launched its insurgency in 2009.
U.S. officials have said the United States could send more advisers to Nigeria to train its military and help boost the economy, the largest in Africa, through more investment in its oil and gas sector.
Thomas-Greenfield said the United States was encouraged that Buhari’s first trips were to neighbors Niger and Chad, which are part of a multi-national force being set up to fight Boko Haram’s insurgency in the Lake Chad region.
Nigeria’s Major-General Tukur Buratai has been appointed to head the new force, which will be funded partly by the international community.
”He is someone we have worked with and someone we feel will be a positive force on the multinational task force,” she said, adding that Buhari was still studying options to fund a stepped- up effort to tackle Boko Haram.
A communiqué issued at the end of President Buhari’s one-day visit to Chad said both leaders agreed on the need to quickly make the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) fully operational to effectively combat terrorism in Northeast Nigeria and “everywhere” that Boko Haram operates.
The two Presidents called on the international community to support the Lake Chad Basin Commission and neigbouring countries to combat terrorism and insurgency.
“Both Heads of State agreed that the war on Boko Haram should be supported by emergency development initiatives in areas affected by this insurgency group.
“This will help to overcome the harmful effects faced by local populations,” the communiqué said.
Source: Thenationonlineng
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