Nigeria,
Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin pledge to cooperate against militant group that
has kidnapped 200 schoolgirls
 |
| Nigeria's president Goodluck Jonathan and French president François Hollande leave the Élysée palace after the summit on Boko Haram. Photograph: Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images |
African
leaders at a summit in Paris have agreed on a regional plan of action to combat
Boko Haram, the Islamist group that has abducted more than 200 girls and
threatened to sell them into slavery.
In a rare
show of unity, the leaders of Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin pledged
cooperation including joint border patrols and sharing intelligence to find the
girls, snatched from Nigeria more than a month ago.
Nigeria has
faced criticism for not having done enough to protect its people, particularly
the girls, and for its slow response to the kidnappings.
The
country's president, Goodluck Jonathan, described Boko Haram as a
"terrorist organisation" and said it was part of an "al-Qaida
operation".
The
mini-summit, hosted by France, brought together presidents in the region to
discuss how to come up with a united response to combat Boko Haram.
Earlier,
the US department of defence suggested the Nigerian army was not capable of
confronting Boko Haram alone.
"The
division in the north that mainly is engaging with Boko Haram … has recently
shown signs of real fear," said Alice Friend, the department's African
affairs director. "They do not have the capabilities, the training or the
equipment that Boko Haram does, and Boko Haram is exceptionally brutal and
indiscriminate in their attacks."
Key to the
success of the summit was the presence of Cameroon, Nigeria's neighbour, at the
table. Relations between the two countries have been soured by a long-standing
territorial dispute.
Representatives
from the US, UK and EU were also present in Paris.
The UK
foreign secretary, William Hague, said forging better relations between Nigeria
and Cameroon was essential and neighbouring countries could provide practical
help to search for the schoolgirls.
"This
is a very important moment in the search for the schoolgirls that were abducted
in Nigeria now nearly five weeks ago. To make sure we are doing everything we
can in practical terms, working together," Hague said.
"We
want to see the countries in the region work together more effectively –
creating an intelligence fusion cell, conducting joint patrols and operations.
"The
second focus is making sure there is a strategy to defeat Boko Haram more
broadly. This is one sickening and terrible incident, but they continue almost
every day to commit terrorist attacks and atrocities of other kinds. They have
to be defeated in the region."
Boko
Haram's ability to operate across vast areas of northern Nigeria is helped by
the porous nature of the borders in the region.
There have
been reports of the group carrying out attacks in Nigeria and escaping into
Cameroon.
The French
president, François Hollande, said: "Boko Haram has become a major threat
for the whole of west Africa and now for central Africa."
He added
that the organisation has been shown to have links with al-Qaida affiliates
including al-Qaida in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM) and other terrorist
organisations.
"A
global plan must be put into operation with the aim of exchanging informations
and coordinating actions, controlling borders and acting in an appropriate
way," Hollande said.
Nigeria and
its neighbours pledged to reinforce security measures for those living in areas
targeted by Boko Haram, carry out bilateral patrols and share operational
intelligence to find the kidnapped girls and other snatched by the Islamist
group.
A second
summit at ministerial level will be held in London next month to report on what
progress has been made.
As the
summit took place, Boko Haram was reported to have killed one Chinese road
worker and kidnapped 10 others between Friday night and Saturday morning in
northern Cameroon.
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