Nigeria’s Buhari and regional counterparts working to set up joint force against Boko Haram

New Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari met his regional counterparts in Abuja on Thursday to set up a joint military force against Boko Haram, the latest sign of his intent to stop the Islamist militant group early in his tenure.

Buhari, who was inaugurated 2 weeks ago, welcomed the leaders of neighboring Chad, Niger and Benin for the impromptu one-day summit at Abuja airport. Cameroon sent its defense minister.

Entering the meeting, Buhari told reporters Abuja had pledged US$100 million to setting up the force, which will be based in the Chad capital Ndjamena but headed by a Nigerian.

Boko Haram has killed thousands and displaced 1.5 million people during a six-year insurgency aimed at establishing an Islamic state in Nigeria’s northeast.

Until the launch this year of offensives by Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria, the group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, occupied an area the size of Belgium.

Squashing the insurgency was one of Buhari’s main campaign promises, in contrast to his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, who was accused of dithering and incompetence, particularly after the kidnapping of more than 200 girls from a school in the town of Chibok in April last year.

In his two weeks since assuming office, Buhari has focused on little else, traveling to Niger and Chad and shifting the military command center from Abuja to Maiduguri, the capital of northeast Borno state and birthplace of the insurgency.

Buhari, has named Yemi Osinbajo, a southern Christian lawyer from the commercial hub of Lagos, as his vice president but is yet to complete his cabinet appointments.

Such delays are common in Nigeria’s notoriously convoluted politics.

Source: Reuters