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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Talks Open in Niger on Regional Fight Against Boko Haram |
| 2015-01-21 |
| [AnNahar] A regional summit opened in Niger Tuesday aimed at stopping Boko Haram as the Islamist insurgents step up attacks both inside Nigeria and in neighboring countries. "The increase in strength of Boko Haram reflects our slowness and our inability to put up a robust response," Niger's Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum said at the talks in Niamey. "We are watching, as was the case in Mali, the loss of sovereignty in Nigeria over large tracts of its territory and the exporting of the violence to neighboring countries." Ministers from Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Benin and Equatorial Guinea were due to attend, along with representatives from the US, the European Union, China and several other countries. Leaders from Ghana and Chad have called for a unified effort in confronting the Islamist militants, whose insurgency has left 13,000 dead and forced 1.5 million from their homes since 2009. Chad sent a convoy of troops and 400 military vehicles on Saturday into neighboring Cameroon to fight Boko Haram, with Nigeria's army widely criticized for failing to crush the militants. A Boko Haram assault this month on the town of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad triggered widespread outrage and helped spur a regional response. Amnesty International described the attack, which is believed to have killed hundreds of people, as "the biggest and most destructive" yet by the armed fundamentalists. Authorities said Tuesday hundreds of people have fled villages near Baga after Boko Haram told them to leave or be killed. As the talks opened, Nigeria's ambassador to Niger chastised his country's neighbors for pulling their forces out of Baga ahead of the assault. "I note, with consternation, the withdrawal of the military forces from Chad and Niger without prior consultation," Ambassador Aliou Issa Sokoto said. "One might have expected that we were consulted in an adequate manner before the decision to pull out," he added. Cameroon has also seen repeated attacks recently, including the kidnapping of dozens of people, mostly women and children, during a deadly attack on Sunday. "The security situation in Nigeria and in the Lake Chad basin has deteriorated considerably," Bazoum told the Niamey meeting, adding that the fall of Baga showed that the sect has "more and more substantial resources" and firepower. Chad's President Idriss Deby, who backs a regional effort, last week announced his determination to recapture Baga, a strategic area on Lake Chad where the borders of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria converge. For Bazoum, Chad's military intervention was "the most significant positive development" in regional efforts to tackle Boko Haram. A previous plan for joint operations has barely got off the ground. However, Cameroon's Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said it would take time to coordinate Cameroonian and Chadian troops. "Don't expect to start seeing the results of that tomorrow," he warned. |
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