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ACCRA—West African leaders are considering creating a military force
to fight Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamist militants and will hold a
regional summit next week to discuss the issue, Ghana’s President John
Mahama said on Friday.
Regional bloc ECOWAS will seek the support of the African Union (AU)
for its plans, said Mahama.
“Nigeria is taking military action and Cameroon is fighting Boko
Haram, but I think we are increasingly getting to the point where
probably a regional or a multinational force is coming into
consideration,” Mahama, who currently chairs ECOWAS, told a news
conference.
“It is what we want to discuss at the AU because, if that must happen,
there must be a mandate to allow such a force to operate,” he said.
Boko Haram militants have killed thousands of people in Nigeria in the
last year as part of a campaign to establish an Islamist state in
Nigeria. The group has also launched cross-border attacks into
neighboring Cameroon and Niger.
The group’s fighters seized the military base and town of Baga, in
Nigeria on the shores of Lake Chad, on Jan. 3. Baga was the
headquarters of a multinational force with troops from Chad, Niger and
Cameroon.
Credit: Reuters
