Regional leaders meet in Nigeria to discuss driving out Boko Haram

Nigeria’s new President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday holds talks with regional leaders on Boko Haram, with hopes a new fighting force will help crush the Islamists after six years of violence. Heads of state and government from Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin jet in to Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, after two days of preparatory discussions involving military top brass and defence ministers. The meetings come on the back of Buhari’s appeal to world leaders at the G7 summit in Germany last weekend for more help in combating extremism and visits to Chad and Niger.

Common resolve to put an end to a menace that has become a regional and… global problem. If there is any time for us to rise in one voice, irrespective of our differences, it is now.

Nigeria’s chief of defence staff Alex Badeh

Buhari, 72, has made ending the militants’ reign of terror his top priority and has already moved the military’s command centre from Abuja to Maiduguri, in the rebels’ northeastern stronghold. The flurry of activity since his inauguration on May 29 stands in stark contrast to years of apparent inaction in tackling the group by his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan. Boko Haram has reverted to guerrilla tactics since being forced out of captured towns and villages, with at least 12 attacks since Buhari took over and 109 deaths, according to AFP reporting.

Africa Boko Haram