United States has announced a commitment of $5 million to the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to strengthen the fight against Boko Haram terrorism.
US Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, announced this at a news briefing via telephone in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the African Union Summit.
She said “We have been working with Nigeria as well as the African countries to address their concerns about Boko Haram because we don’t see this as just a Nigerian problem.
“We are having discussions with President Buhari on how we might bolster our support. We have already been working with them and providing information.
“We are providing some training and support and we’ll love to work with the new administration to see how we might increase the level of support to Nigeria.
“At the same time, we’ve just announced at the venue of the AU, five million dollars contribution to the Multinational Task Force.
“We are also providing some equipment and support and we have a number of meetings with the countries who are members of the Multinational Joint Task Force to look at other areas we might support.”
Talking on general terrorism in Africa, Thomas-Greenfield said “That requires a very strong and very concerted strategic effort by African countries and partners to address the security concerns of Africa.”
She further said “We are working closely with the Lake Chad Basin countries: Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon to address the issues of Boko Haram,” she said.
She added that US had trained about 250,000 African peacekeepers, saying security remained the highest priority of US in Africa.
