Nigeria, Congo, E’Guinea seek more foreign support against Boko Haram

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, alongside his counterparts from the Republic of Congo (President Denis Sassou N Guesso) and Equatorial Guinea (President Teodoro Obiang Nguems Mbasogo) have appealed to the international community for more support to consolidate on the ongoing war against terrorism in the north-eastern Nigeria.

  The three leaders who, stressed the need to strengthen the Multi-National Joint Task Force ((MNJTF) to combat terrorism along the coasts of West and Central Africa with its devastating impacts, made the joint plea during a stop-over working visits of Presidents Nguesso and Mbasogo at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja Monday. They applauded the series of successes so far recorded in the fight against the insurgents.

 The visits, which was at the instance of Jonathan, followed the decision taken by the Heads of State and Governments of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) during their summit in Yaunde, Cameroon, on the 16th of February 2015.

  A statement after the meeting said the three leaders reviewed the current security challenges facing the West African and Central African regions, especially terrorism and the menace of the insurgency by Boko Haram. 

The leaders condemned the insurgency, its destructive activities such as indiscriminate killing of peoples and wanton destruction of properties and the abduction of innocent women and children, especially young school girls, who are being turned to sex slaves.

  The Congolese leader, N Guesso, who presented the statement, said: “We are here because we have been mandated by the Heads of State of the Central African Community to bring here, and show our solidarity to the people of Nigeria and the government of Nigeria, and to our brother and friend, President Jonathan. 

   “And after here, we are on a mission to Accra to meet with President John Mahama of Ghana, who is the Chairman of ECOWAS.  We will study the situation together and put in place a security architecture to see how we can coordinate all our actions to put out and eradicate the Boko Haram, which has been spreading in a very grave manner. We look forward to peace, security and development in Africa.” 

  “We have met with our friend, President Jonathan. We have no doubt that we will collectively utilize all political, military and diplomatic actions and mobilize all our actions in all fronts to degrade and eradicate Boko Haram. We have no doubt that we have arrived at a mechanism for coordinating all our actions for effectiveness. 

“We want to thank our friend President Jonathan for the peace we have seen here and for his listening, and the exchange we have had. We want to congratulate the government and the people of Nigeria and all the security forces for the recent success that they recorded in overcoming attacks by Boko Haram. We hope that the framework that we are going to put in place will give us a better and more effective result against Boko Haram. 

“We think that with the leadership of the people of our continent, which includes ECOWAS and Central African Community, and the support of the international community, we will get effective results for the continent. We hope that with our collective mobilization we will achieve sustainable peace and security for the continent.”