West African nations have pledged to join together in the fight against Boko Haram, the movement behind the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria, just as the Islamist militant group stepped up its attacks in Cameroon.
François Hollande, the French president, who was hosting talks between the west African nations in Paris at the weekend, said Boko Haram was no longer only a Nigerian problem but was a terrorist group that threatened to destabilise the whole region.
“Boko Haram is not a terrorist group that restricts its activity to Nigeria, Boko Haram is an organisation with links to terrorism across Africa,” he told the presidents of Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Benin and officials from the UK and US.
Goodluck Jonathan, Nigerian president, said Boko Haram was “clearly acting as an al-Qaeda operation”.
The security meeting came as suspected Boko Haram militants attacked a Chinese camp in northern Cameroon, leaving 10 Chinese nationals missing and injuring another working for Sinohydro, a leading Chinese construction contractor.
Lu Qingjiang, an official at the Chinese embassy in Cameroon, urged the Cameroonian authorities to “not put the lives of [the missing] Chinese nationals in danger” if rescue attempts were launched, according to the state owned Xinhua news agency.
The attack occurred near the town of Waza, about 20km from the Nigerian border close to the Sambisa forest, a Boko Haram stronghold, Xinhua said.
The security meeting in Paris, designed to encourage Nigeria’s neighbours to co-ordinate their military and intelligence operations, marks the strongest sign yet of regional co-operation on Boko Haram. Chad and Niger have since late last year worked with Nigeria against the movement, but Cameroon has until now largely treated the Islamist group as a Nigerian problem. But Paul Biya, the president of Cameroon, said in Paris: “We are here to declare war on Boko Haram”.
Mr Hollande said after the meeting that regional and international participants had agreed on a “global and regional action plan” involving intelligence sharing, increased border surveillance and a stronger military presence in certain areas.
The UK said on Sunday that a RAF Sentinel reconnaissance aircraft had flown to west Africa to join US spy-planes patrolling Nigeria in an attempt to locate hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram last month. The aircraft, with a crew of five, will operate from Accra, the capital of Ghana, on surveillance missions.
Philip Hammond, UK defence secretary, said in a statement the kidnapping was a “reprehensible act which has drawn international condemnation”.
Paris, which is concerned about instability in its former colonies, is keen to boost the fight against militant groups in the large Sahel region that extends south of the Sahara desert.
France has about 6,000 troops operating in Mali and the Central African Republic, where violence has increased significantly over recent weeks. In Mali, Moussa Mara, prime minister, on Sunday said the country was at war with armed Tuareg separatists after the rebels attacked a northern town, kidnapping 30 civil servants.
Although Paris has in the past suggested links between different militant groups operating across the Sahel region, so far there is little evidence that Boko Haram and other groups are co-ordinating their attacks.
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