Ghana President to urge AU for coordinated plan to deal with Boko Haram threat

Ghana’s President John Mahama has asked African leaders to prepare a coordinated plan to defeat al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants like the al-Shabaab in Kenya and Boko Haram in Nigeria.

Boko Haram has killed thousands of people over the past year in its bloody campaign to revive a medieval Islamic caliphate and is seen as the worst security threat to Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and biggest energy producer. Lately, Boko Haram has also launched cross-border attacks into neighboring Cameroon and Chad.

The West African bloc known as ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) will seek the support of the African Union (AU) for the idea of a regional military force, Mahama told a news conference.

A meeting of African leaders is scheduled to take place at the end of the month at the annual African Union meeting of heads of state in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“These are extraordinary times that call for measures that are equally as extraordinary,” he said. “It is my intention for us to emerge from that session with a specific plan of action.”

“Nigeria is taking military action and Cameroon is fighting Boko Haram, but I think we are increasingly getting to the point where probably a regional or a multinational force is coming into consideration,” said Mahama, who currently chairs ECOWAS.

Boko Haram’s actions have stirred increasing international outrage, particularly when militants seized more than 200 school girls from a school in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria – the epicenter of the violence – in April last year.

Source: Agencies