Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin agreed today to set up a joint military force to counter Boko Haram, a sign of President Muhammadu Buhari’s intent to crush the Islamist militant group early in his tenure.
At a one-day summit at Abuja airport, the 72-year-old former military ruler, welcomed the leaders of Chad and Niger, and the defense minister of Cameroon. A statement afterwards said the joint force, based in the Chad capital Ndjamena, would be up and running by July 30 with a permanent Nigerian leader, a concession to Buhari’s opposition to rotating commanders.
Squashing the insurgency was one of Buhari’s main campaign promises, in contrast to his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, who was accused of dithering and incompetence, particularly after the kidnapping of more than 200 girls from a school in the town of Chibok in April last year. In his two weeks since assuming office, Buhari has focused on little else, traveling to Niger and Chad and shifting the military command center from Abuja to Maiduguri, the birthplace of the insurgency.
