26th July, 2014
The African Union Commission (AUC) has announced plans to set up a joint task force with four member states to tackle the menace of the Boko Haram insurgents.
The states are in West and Central Africa — Nigeria, Cameroun, Chad and Niger. The AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ambassador Smail Chergui, gave the indication on Friday while briefing newsmen at the Commission’s headquarters in Addis Ababa.
“On the fight against Boko Haram, the four countries, members of Lake Chad Basin have now announced the contribution of 700 armed men from each country to tackle the insurgents.
“They have also organised their intelligence in order to work together. This is the good news meanwhile, the AU has a proposal even to go further to really be associated with that force or even bring it to the level of what we are doing. It will be joint task force on Boko Haram.”
Chergui commended the four countries on the effort and pledged AU Commission’s support on the plan which based recommendations of the meeting of Head Intelligence Service of the West African region held in Burkina Faso.
“The recommendations of the head of intelligence service meeting were adopted by peace and Security Council. We are hopeful to work with countries of the region to materialise that force in order to really have better force to tackle the situation,” the Commissioner said.
He said AMISOM force had resumed operations in Somalia to regain some towns which are still under the control of the Al-Shabab terror groups.
“Some of our operations had stopped because of the rainy season but now the action has resumed and we are hoping to continue regaining towns and places that are under control by Alshebab
“We are also concerned by the terrorist attacks that have been now organised in neighbouring countries, so I think the Peace and Security Summit in Kenya in September will come up with additional measures that we can recommend member states and the international community for interventions.”
He said the Chair of the peace and Security Council, President Idriss Debi of Chad has accepted to organise the summit, on 2 September in Nairobi.
The Summit would be hosted in Nairobi as a solidarity and determination to deal with security challenges not only in the East Africa, but also the Sahel and West Africa to tackle the Boko Haram and so on.
At a recent meeting on Wednesday in Abuja, Nigeria , Chad, Cameroon and Niger had pledged 700 soldiers each to the joint force following the recent killings in northern Nigeria.