African leaders have agreed to send 7 500 troops to fight
the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria, an African Union official said
Saturday.
The move came after the council urged heads
of state to endorse the deployment of troops from five West African countries
to fight the terror group, said the head of the African Union's Peace and
Security Council, Samil Chergui.
African leaders who are members of the
54-nation African Union are meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa for a
two-day summit that ends Saturday.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier said
he support the AU's move to send a force to fight Boko Haram. Boko Haram is
increasing its attacks as Nigeria prepares for 14 February elections. Thousands
have been killed in the 5-year insurgency.
African nations have opened up a new
international front in the war on terror. On Thursday, neighbouring Chad sent a
war plane and troops that drove the extremists out of a northeastern Nigeria
border town in the first such act by foreign troops on Nigerian soil.
Chad's victory, and the need for foreign
troops, is an embarrassment to Nigeria's once-mighty military, brought low by
corruption and politics. The foreign intervention comes just two weeks before
hotly contested national elections in which President Goodluck Jonathan is
seeking another term.
Chergui said Chad's operation against Boko
Haram was a result of a bilateral arrangement between the Chad and Cameroon.
"It is conducted as part of a bilateral
agreement and arrangement between the two countries. The AU, however, will
launch the force in the future," he said.
