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Yaounde – Five African nations on Saturday pledged to deploy 8,700 troops, police and civilians as part of a regional effort to fight Nigeria’s Boko Haram militants.“The representatives of Benin, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Chad have announced contributions totalling 8,700 military personnel, police and civilians,” the countries said in a statement after a meeting in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.
The news emerged from a three-day summit focusing on forging a strategy for battling the militants, who are engaged in a worsening six-year insurgency in north-eastern Nigeria.
African Union leaders will submit the plan crafted by Western and African experts to the UN Security Council for approval.
Boko Haram’s attacks have increasingly spilled over from Nigeria into neighbouring nations.
Their first major attack in Niger on Friday triggered a forceful response from Chadian and Nigerien troops.
Niger’s defence minister reported that 109 of the Islamists were killed in the fighting, along with four soldiers and a civilian. Seventeen other troops were wounded.
The United States said it condemned the attack in the “strongest possible terms” and pledged support for regional forces.
“This unchecked killing must stop,” State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said. “We continue to provide support to governments in the region, including through intelligence sharing and are increasing our support for these efforts.”
Chad already has troops fighting Boko Haram on two fronts, with soldiers deployed in Niger and Nigeria.
Nigeria’s electoral commission will postpone the 14 February presidential and legislative elections for six weeks to give a new multinational force time to secure north-eastern areas under the sway of Boko Haram, an official close to the commission told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Millions could be disenfranchised if the voting went ahead while the Islamic extremists hold a large swath of the northeast and commit mayhem that has driven 1.5 million people from their homes.
The Nigerian official, who is knowledgeable of the discussions, said the Independent National Electoral Commission will announce the postponement later. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
A major offensive with warplanes and ground troops from Chad and Nigeria already has forced the insurgents from a dozen towns and villages in the past 10 days. Even greater military strikes by more countries are planned.
African Union officials and representatives of countries supporting the initiative were ending a three-day meeting on Saturday in Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital, to finalise details of a 7 500-strong force from Nigeria and its neighbours Chad, Cameroon, Benin and Niger.
Details of funding, with the Africans wanting the UN and EU to pay, may delay the mission.
Nigeria’s home-grown extremist group has responded with attacks on one town in Cameroon and two in Niger this week. Officials said more than 100 civilians were killed and 500 wounded in Cameroon. Niger said about 100 insurgents and one civilian died in attacks Friday. Several security forces from both countries were killed.
International concern has increased along with the death toll: Some 10,000 killed in the uprising in the past year compared to 2,000 in the four previous years, according to the US Council on Foreign Relations.
Officials in President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration have supported postponing the 14 February vote.
Any delay is opposed by an opposition coalition fielding former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari, though the opposition stands to take most votes in the northeast. Supporters of both sides are threatening violence if their candidate does not win. Some 800 people were killed in riots in the mainly Muslim north after Buhari, a Muslim, lost 2011 elections to Jonathan, a Christian from the south.
Analysts say the vote is too close to call, the most tightly contested election since decades of military dictatorship ended in 1999.
Jonathan’s party has won every election since then but the failure of the military to curb the five year Islamic uprising, growing corruption and an economy hit by halved oil prices have hurt the president of Africa’s biggest oil producer and most populous nation of about 170 million.- News24.
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