Communique of the Paris Summit on Boko Haram

Communiqué of the Paris Summit on Boko Haram

The Paris Summit on Boko Haram held yesterday in the French capital and had in attendance the Presidents of France, Nigeria, Cameroun, Chad and Niger.

Reports have it that the summit agreed on a number of initiatives to curtail the excesses of the insurgents and as well mobilize funds in support of women and girls in marginalized areas.

A communiqué issued after the meeting further said that countries are to establish an intelligence-pooling unit, create a dedicated team to identify means of implementation and draw up, during a second phase, a regional counterterrorism strategy in the framework of the Lake Chad Basin Commission.

“The United States, the United Kingdom, France and the European Union will coordinate their support for this regional cooperation through technical expertise, training programmes and support for the border area management programmes.”

The participants committed to “accelerating the implementation of international sanctions against Boko Haram, Ansaru and their main leaders, within the United Nations framework as a priority.”

France, US, Britain and the European Union pledged to mobilize donors in support of programmes fostering social economic development of the regions concerned with particular emphasis on gender equality and the rights of women and girls.

The participants agreed that the United Kingdom would host a follow up meeting next month at ministerial level to review progress on this action plan. They have agreed to institute sanctions against Boko Haram and Ansaru within the framework of the United Nations.

It came as President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan explained that it was not necessary for him to visit Chibok, Borno State where over 200 girls were abducted in Government Girls Secondary School because the girls were not in the School, noting that his interest was to locate and rescue the girls.

At the end of the summit presided over by the French President, Nigeria and its neighbours, agreed to build analysis and response capabilities that will contribute to enhancing the security of all populations and the rule of law in the areas affected by Boko Haram’s terrorist acts.

In order to combat the insurgents’ threat “which manifested itself through several murderous attacks and the abduction of more than 270 school girls, Nigeria and its neighbours have decided to immediately on a bilateral basis implement coordinated patrols with the aim of combating Boko Haram and locating the Chibok girls.

They are also to establish a system to pool intelligence in order to support this operation, establish mechanisms for information exchange on trafficking of weapons and bolster measures to secure weapons stockpiles while also establishing mechanism for border surveillance.