Washington pledges $5bn worth of support for anti-Boko Haram regional task force

WEST Africa's regional military force put together to fight Boko Haram the Multi National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) has received a big boost from the US with Washington pledging to contribute $5bn to the effort.

 

Due to the constant menace of the Boko Haram terrorist sect that has been operational in Nigeria since 2009, regional neighbours Chad, Cameroon, Benin Republic, Niger Republic and Nigeria have joined forces to create the MNJTF. To be headquartered in Ndjamena, the Chadian capital, the force will be made up of 7,500 troops and will be charged with checking Boko Haram's cross-border activities in the region.

 

Last week, the presidents from the contributing nations met in Abuja to discuss the modalities for the force during which President Muhammadu Buhari pledged that Nigeria would contribute $100m towards the project.  Now the US assistant secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has pledged that Washington will back the effort too.

 

Ms Thomas-Greenfield said: “We have been working with Nigeria as well as the African countries to address their concerns about Boko Haram because we don’t see this as just a Nigerian problem. We are having discussions with President Buhari on how we might bolster our support and we have already been working with them and providing information.

 

“We are providing some training and support and we’ll love to work with the new administration to see how we might increase the level of support to Nigeria. At the same time, we’ve just announced at the venue of the African Union (AU) a $5bn contribution to the multinational task force and we are also providing some equipment and support and we have a number of meetings with the countries who are members of the MNJTF to look at other areas we might support.”

 

She added that Africa had faced some really horrendous terrorist attacks over the past two years, including the West Gate and Garissa University attacks in Kenya, the Boko Haram crisis and the kidnapping of the Chibok girls among others. According to Ms Thomas-Greenfield, the US is providing a strong support to the AU on security as it has a strong partnership with the continent on security.

 

“While I would not say Africa is under siege, it has some major security challenges and that requires a very strong and very concerted strategic effort by African countries and partners to address the security concerns. We are working closely with the Lake Chad Basin countries Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon to address the issues of Boko Haram," Ms Thomas-Greenfield added.

 

In addition, she pointed out that the US has so far trained about 250,000 African peacekeepers, saying Washington's highest priority in Africa remains security. Furthermore, she said that the US frowned at plans by some African leaders to subvert the constitution to extend their terms in office, saying Washington supports two-term limits in office.

 

Also, Ms Thomas-Greenfield expressed support to the warrant of arrest issued by the International Criminal Court against Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir. So far, the US has not made any attempts to arrest him, to face war crimes charges however.