Boko Haram
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Benin says it will dispatch 800 troops to join a multinational task force set up to combat Nigeria-based Takfiri Boko Haram militants, who are posing security threats to West African nations. Benin’s President Thomas Boni Yayi announced the decision following a meeting with his visiting Nigerian counterpart, Muhammadu Buhari, in the city of Cotonou on Saturday.
Boni Yayi told reporters that his country will show “solidarity” with its “brothers in arms” in the region by sending “a contingent of 800 men ... to permanently combat these outlaws.”In a bid to confront the threat posed by Boko Haram militants in West Africa, the Nigerian president announced last month the establishment of the multinational task force, including soldiers from Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad as well as Benin.
Earlier this week, Buhari also appointed Major General Iliya Abbah to lead the force, which is made up of 8,700 troops and headquartered in Chad’s capital city of N’Djamena.
The multinational force is expected to be more effective than a current regional anti-Boko Haram campaign launched in February.Violence by Boko Haram has also spilled over into Nigeria’s neighboring countries, with Cameroon, Chad and Niger being directly affected by the growing threat of the Takfiri group in recent months.
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The Boko Haram Takfiri militants have slaughtered at least 10 fishermen during a series of recent violent attacks on three villages in Nigeria's northeastern state of Borno. Local sources said on Thursday that the deadly militant raids were carried out in the villages near the town of Baga, on the shores of the Lake Chad in the country’s troubled northeast. "On Monday around 4:00 p.m. (1500 GMT), Boko Haram attacked three villages on the shores of Lake Chad where they slaughtered 10 people, all of them fishermen," AFP quoted Abubakar Gamandi, the head of the fishermen's union in Borno State as saying.
The account was confirmed by a local fisherman, identified as Buhari Dan-Malam. The news comes a few days after at least 14 people were killed and nearly 50 others wounded in a July 26 bomb attack at a busy market in in the town of Damaturu, the capital of Yobe State. Boko Haram has intensified its attacks since President Muhammadu Buhari took office in late May, unleashing a fresh wave of violence that has claimed about 800 lives in just two months.
The Nigerian government on Thursday appointed a general to lead a new multinational task force set up to fight Boko Haram across the region. Nigerian military sources said Major General Iliya Abbah, who previously commanded military operations in the oil-rich Niger Delta, will head the five-nation force - the Multi-National Joint Task Force made up of 8,700 troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin.
The multi-national force is expected to be more effective than a current alliance in the battle to curb militancy. The regional task force will be headquartered in Chad's capital N'Djamena. Violence by Boko Haram has spilled over into Nigeria’s neighboring countries. Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau has repeatedly threatened to attack Nigeria’s neighbors that have joined forces against the militants.
The three Nigerian states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, located in Nigeria’s northeastern region, have been the epicenter of six years of Boko Haram violence, which has claimed over 15,000 lives and displaced a further 1.5 million people.
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Chad said on Thursday its forces had killed 117 Boko Haram insurgents during a two-week military campaign aimed at clearing islands on Lake Chad used by the militants as hideouts and bases to launch attacks.
Chad has deployed thousands of soldiers alongside troops from neighbors Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger to tackle the militant group whose six-year insurgency has killed thousands. "We killed 117 Boko Haram fighters during the two-week operation. We lost two men and several wounded," Colonel Azem Bermandoa, spokesman for the Chadian army, said. "We destroyed their boats and seized various weapons during the operation," he said.
Boko Haram, which calls itself the Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP) since pledging allegiance to the militant group that controls large areas of Syria and Iraq, has stepped up attacks in countries around the lake in recent months in response to a regional offensive. Last weekend, suspected militants from the group raided several remote localities around the lake.
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President Buhari of Nigeria has left Cameroon after a short state visit. Before his departure, President Paul Biya and his Nigerian counterpart paused at the Yaounde Nsimalen International Airport along with their ministers of external relations and issued a Joint Communiqué which contained the resolutions taken at the exchange of both Heads of State and also between other authorities who were in the official delegations of the two neigbouring countries.
In the security registry that was the big topic on the presidential menu, the two heads of state noted with satisfaction the ongoing weakening of the operational capacity of the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram. Biya and Buhari renewed their support for the Joint Multinational Force in the war against Boko Haram. Paul Biya and Muhammadu Buhari also expressed their common resolve to eradicate Boko Haram and above all, they agreed among other things, to intensify the exchange of intelligence information between security services of both countries.
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Muhammadu Buhari the Nigerian Head of State has arrived in Yaounde for a working visit and friendship. Buhari was received by President Biya in Yaounde and both leaders have held discussions on Boko Haram and the economy. The visit has also provided an opportunity for both countries to strengthen their historical ties to tweak their economic relations and also to build a strong regional alliance to confront the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
Economically, in 2013, Nigeria was the second largest supplier to Cameroon and the fourteenth largest customer to the Sub Saharan giant. In addition, 2013 also witnessed Nigeria's exports to Cameroon amounting to 452 billion and 18 million CFA francs while exports from Cameroon to Nigeria ranged up to 39 billion 531 million CFA francs. Cameroon's main imports from Nigeria includes petroleum products, lubricants, building materials, cosmetics, fertilizers, oranges, appliances, household items and loincloths tissue. In return Nigeria buys food, livestock, vegetable oils, industry products, aluminum and detergents.
With a population of 190 million consumers, Nigeria's contribution to the Cameroonian economy is very significant. 4% of companies surveyed in Cameroon in 2010 belong to Nigerian nationals with 3127 units engaged in retail and wholesale trade and also in the sectors of heavy industry such as metallurgy and construction. The two countries share a long border of over 1 600 km. Both leaders are expected to read a joint statement tomorrow.
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Boko Haram Takfiri militants are still holding on to some territories in Nigeria's troubled northeast, local governors say. State governors from the troubled northeastern region told a monthly national economic council meeting in the capital Abuja on Thursday that the militant group still controls five municipalities within the northeastern Borno and Yobe states. "On Boko Haram issues, governors of Yobe and Borno raised the alarm of five local government areas of the two states still being in possession of the insurgents," an official three-page document made available to reporters after the meeting said.
The governors called for an "increase in military deployment and provision of sophisticated military equipment in those areas," the document added. “Insurgents are still hiding in the Sambisa forest," it went on to say. It is widely believed that over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from their school in Chibok, Borno State, by militants in April last year are being held in the sprawling forest there.
Nigerian armed forces have managed to free hundreds of hostages from Boko Haram captivity in their offensives in Sambisa, from where the militant group has planned and executed many of its terrorist operations. Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states in the troubled northeast have suffered the brunt of the Boko Haram militancy. The Takfiri group has also targeted mosques, villages and markets in neighboring Borno State in a fresh wave of attacks that have killed hundreds of people in recent months.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to tackle Boko Haram militancy which is currently plaguing the West African nation. On Wednesday, President Buhari lashed out at the United States for refusing to provide his soldiers with weapons in their fight against Boko Haram. Buhari said Washington “aided and abetted” the militants in his country by refusing to arm Nigerian forces.
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