West African Leaders Agree to Wage Total War Against Boko Haram for Kidnapping Girls

French President Francois Hollande, third right, shakes hands with Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan as others, from left, Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou, Chad’s President Idriss Debi, Cameroon President Paul Biya, Benin president Thomas Boni Yayi, look on at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Saturday.

It appears little has been done to locate the remaining 276 African girls who were kidnapped from the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School on April 15 and later claimed victims of the terrorist group, Boko Harem. An international outrage  was sparked via social media after president Barack Obama referred to the story as “heartbreaking.”

Hopefully, with news from a meeting held today by leaders in West Africa, this is about to change.

West African leaders have agreed to work together and wage “total war” on Boko Haram – the terrorist group that kidnapped the girls from a school dormitory last month. Referring  to the Nigerian Islamist group as a “regional al Qaeda” the leaders agree that the group serves as a threat to all of them.

Representatives from Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin, all neighboring countries of Nigeria, gathered with western officials for the first time to brainstorm on a plan; sharing for the first time, intelligence, and coordinating actions to monitor the country’s borders.

Before the massive kidnapping of the girls last month, Boko Haram had been considered a local terrorist group who, for the last five years, carried out bombings and attacks on civilians and the security forces. But the kidnapping brought them to international attention.

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Source: EURWeb